THE  BENSON  LIBRARY  OF  HYMNOLOGY 

Endowed  by  the  Reverend 

Louis  Fitzgerald  Benson,  d.d. 

LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 
PRINCETON,   NEW  JERSEY 


inn 


s 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2013 


http://archive.org/details/diesiraeOOcole 


LATDS"  HTM8 


ORIGINAL    TRANSLATIONS. 

IN   FOUR   TARTS. 

I.  DIES  IR.E. 

N.  STAB  AT   MATER  (Dolorosa). 

III.  STABAT   MATER  (Steciosa). 

IV.  OLD   GEMS   IN   NEW   SETTINGS. 


DIES    IR^E. 


> 


■■ 


m  nr<c 


THIRTEEN    ORIGINAL    VERSIONS 


ABRAHAM    COLKS,    M.  D.,   Ph.  D 


FIFTH    EDITION. 


NEW    YORK 
D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY 

1868 


Entered  according  to   Act  of  Congress  in   the  year   1859,1/) 

Abraham  Coles, 

in  the  Clerk's  office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of 

New  Jersey. 


RIVERSIDE,    CAMBRIDGE  : 

STEREOTYPED    AND    PRINTED    BY 

H.    0.    HOUGIITON    AND    COMPANY. 


INTRODUCTION. 


^f^lPSp  T    would     be     difficult    to    find,    in    the 
|pj    whole   range  of  literature,  a   production 


?3&i    to  which   a  profounder  intereft  attaches 

mi      u  u  -c  ■  i       r    i 

-^^    than   to  that  magnificent  canticle  or  the 

Middle  Ages,  the  DIES  IRIE.  Fattening  on  that 
which  is  indeftructible  in  man,  and  giving  fitter  ex- 
preffion  than  can  elsewhere  be  found,  to  experiences 
and  emotions  which  can  never  cease  to  agitate  him, 
it  has  loft  after  the  lapse  of  fix  centuries  none  of  its 
original  frefhness  and  transcendent  power  to  affect 
the  heart.  It  has  commanded  alike  the  admiration 
of  men  of  piety  and  men  of  tafte.  By  common  con- 
sent, it  is  as  Daniel  remarks :  sacrce  poeseos  summum 
decus  et  Ecclesice  Latince  kel^ltjIlov  est  pretiofijjimum. 
Among    gems    it  is  the  diamond.      It  is  solitary  in 


VI  INTRODUCTION. 

'ts  excellence.  Of  Latin  Hymns,  it  is  the  heft 
known  and  the  acknowledged  maflerpiece.  There 
are  others  which  pofTess  much  sweetness  and  beauty, 
but  this  (lands  unrivalled.  It  has  superior  beauties, 
with  none  of  their  defects.  For  the  mofl  part  they 
are  more  or  less  Romifh,  but  this  is  Catholic,  and 
not  Romifh  at  all.  It  is  universal  as  humanity.  It 
is  the  cry  of  the  human.  It  bears  indubitable  marks 
of  being  a  personal  experience. 

The  author  is  supposed  to  have  been  a  monk  :  an 
incredible  suppofition  truly  did  we  not  know  that  a 
monk  is  also  a  man.  One  thing  is  certain,  that  the 
monk  does  not  appear,  and  that  it  is  the  man  only 
that  speaks.  He  no  longer  dreams  and  drivels.  He 
is  effectually  awake.  The  veil  is  lifted.  He  sees 
Chrifl  coming  to  Judgment.  All  the  tumult  and  the 
terror  of  the  Lad  Day  are  present  to  him.  The  final 
pause  and  syncope  of  Nature  j  the  fhuddering  of  a 
horror-flruck  Universe  ;  the  down-ruihing  and  wreck 
of  all  things — all  are  present.  But  these  material 
circumflances  of  horror  and  amazement,  he  feels  are 
as  nothing  compared  with  "  the  infinite  terror  of 
being  found  guilty  before   the  Jufl  Judge."       This 


INTRODUCTION.  Vll 

Tingle  confideration  swallows  up  every  other.  The 
interefts  of  an  eternity  are  crowded  into  a  moment. 

One  great  secret  of  the  power  and  enduring  popu- 
larity of  this  Hymn  is,  undoubtedly,  its  genuineness. 
A  vital  fincerity  breathes  throughout.  It  is  a  cry  de 
brofundis ;  and  the  cry  becomes  sometimes — so  in- 
tense are  the  terror  and  solicitude — almoft  a  fhrielc. 
It  is  in  the  higheft  degree  pathetic.  The  Muse 
is  "  Mater  Lachrymarum,  Our  Lady  of  Tears." 
Every  line  weeps.  Underneath  every  word  and  syl- 
lable, a  living  heart  throbs  and  pulsates.  The  very 
rhythm,  or  that  alternate  elevation  and  depreffion  of 
the  voice,  which  prosodifts  call  the  arfis  and  the 
thefts,  one  might  almoft  fancy  were  synchronous 
with  the  contraction  and  the  dilatation  of  the  heart. 
It  is  more  than  dramatic.  The  horror  and  the  dread 
are  real :  are  actual  not  acted.  A  human  heart  is 
laid  bare,  quivering  with  life,  and  we  see  and  hear  its 
tumultuous  throbbings.  We  sympathize — nay,  be- 
fore we  are  aware,  we  have  changed  places.  We, 
too,  tremble  and  quail  and  cry  aloud. 

All  true  Lyric  Poetry  is  subjective.  The  Dies 
Ir/e  is,  as  we  have  seen,  remarkable  for  its  intense 


Vlll  INTRODUCTION. 

subje&ivity  ;  and  whoever  duly  appreciates  this  char- 
acteristic, will  have  little  difficulty  in  underftandins: 
its  superior  effectiveness  over  everything  else  that 
has  been  written  on  the  same  theme.  The  life  of 
the  writer  has  pafied  into  it  and  informs  it,  so  that  it 
is  itself  alive.  It  has  vital  forces  and  emanations. 
Its  life  mingles  with  our  life.  It  enters  into  our 
veins  and  circulates  in  our  blood.  A  virtue  goes  out 
from  it.  It  is  electrically  charged,  and  contact  is 
inftantly  followed  by  a  fhock  and  fhuddering. 

Springing  from  its  subjectivity,  if  not  identical  with 
it,  we  wTould  further  notice,  the  intenfifying  effect  of 
what  may  be  called  its  personalism,  in  other  words 
its  ego-ism.  It  is  I  and  not  We.  Subftitute  the 
plural  pronoun  for  the  lingular,  and  it  would  lose 
half  its  pungency.  We  have  had  occafion  to  observe 
the  weakening  effect  of  this  in  tranflation.  The 
truth  is,  the  feeling  is  of  a  kind  too  concentrated  and 
too  exacting  to  allow  itself  to  be  diffipated  in  the 
vagueness  of  any  grouping  generality.  The  heart 
knoweth  its  own  bitterness.  There  is  a  grief  that 
cannot  be  fhared,  neither  can  it  be  joined  on  to 
another's.      It  is  not  social  nor  common.      It  is  mine 


INTRODUCTION.  IX 

and  not  yours.  It  is  exclusive,  not  because  it  is  sel- 
fish, but  because  it  has  depths  beyond  the  soundings 
of  ordinary  sympathy. 

This  is  especially  true  of  some  of  the  intenser 
forms  of  religious  experience,  proceeding  as  they  do 
from  that  which  is  moft  intimate  and  innermoft,  the 
penetralia  of  a  man's  consciousness,  his  moft  secret 
and  peculiar  self.  There  is  an  inner  and  privileged 
sanctuary  of  the  heart,  which  is  kept  as  a  chamber 
locked  up.  It  is  hidden  and  sacred.  It  may  be, 
that  the  individual,  dwelling  habitually  in  the  outer 
courts  of  his  being,  rarely  if  ever  enters  into  it  him- 
self. For  man  is  twofold.  A  veil  divides  between 
the  outer  and  the  inner  man.  Gross  and  sensual, 
the  majority  of  mankind  are  averse  to  lifting  the  con- 
cealing medium,  for  fear  of  unwelcome  revelations 
and  discoveries  respecting  themselves.  Goethe  is  an 
example  of  this  portentous  preference  for  half  knowl- 
edge :  "  Man,"  he  says,  "  is  a  darkened  being  ;  he 
knows  not  whence  he  came,  nor  whither  he  goes  •, 
he  knows  little  of  the  world  and  less  of  himself.  I 
know  not  myself,  and  may  God  protect  me  from  it." 

In  converfion  to  God  this  veil  is  rent  from  top  to 
b 


X  INTRODUCTION. 

bottom.  There  is  a  self-revelation.  Behind  the 
curtain,  there  in  the  Moft  Holy  Place,  where  ought 
to  be  the  Shekinah,  the  mining,  senfible  Manifefta- 
tion  of  the  Divine  Presence,  he  beholds  the  Abomi- 
nation of  Iniquity  set  up.  He  awakes  to  the  ftart- 
ling  fact  that  he  is  "  without  God  and  without  hope 
in  the  world."  A  voice  of  urgency  is  sounding  in 
his  ears  :  "  Flee  from  the  Wrath  to  Come."  He 
anticipates  the  terrors  of  the  Judgment.  He  feels 
that  there  is  not  a  moment  to  lose.  Instinct 
prompts,  and  the  Word  of  God  enjoins,  that  he  seek 
to  save  himself  firft.  He  knows  not  whether  others 
are  in  as  bad  a  case  as  he.  But  of  his  own  guilt  and 
danger  he  has' no  doubt.  An  offended  Maker  con- 
fronts him,  him  in  particular.  So  he  prays  and  ago- 
nizes. His  may  not  be  "  the  thews  which  throw  the 
world" — he  is  conscious  of  weakness  rather  than 
urength — yet  fingly  and  alone,  he  wreftles  with  God 
like  Jacob,  and  prevails  like  Israel. 

The  Hymn  is  not  only  lyrical  in  its  efTence,  but 
also  in  its  form.  It  is  inftinct  with  mufic.  It  lings 
itself.  The  grandeur  of  its  rhythm,  and  the  aflo- 
nance  and   chime  of  its  fit  and  powerful  words,  are} 


INTRODUCTION.  XI 

even  in  the  ears  of  those  unacquainted  with  the  Latin 
language,  suggeftive  of  the  richeft  and  mightieft  har- 
monies. The  verse  is  ternary ;  and  the  ternary 
number,  having  been  efteemed  anciently  a  symbol 
of  perfection  and  held  in  great  veneration,  may  pos- 
sibly have  had  something  to  do  with  the  choice  of 
the  ftrophe.  Be  this  as  it  may,  its  metrical  ftruc- 
ture,  as  all  agree,  conftitutes  by  no  means  the  lean:  of 
its  extraordinary  merits.  Trench,  in  his  Selections 
from  Latin  Poetry,  speaks  of  the  metre  as  being 
grandly  devised,  and  fitted  to  bring  out  some  of  the 
nobleft  powers  of  the  Latin  language  ;  and  as  being, 
moreover,  unique,  forming  the  only  example  of  the 
kind  that  he  remembers.  He  notices  the  solemn 
effect,  of  the  triple  rhyme,  comparable  to  blow  fol- 
lowing blow  of  the  hammer  on  the  anvil.  Knapp,  in 
his  Liederschatz,  likens  the  original  to  a  blaft  from 
the  trump  of  resurrection,  and  declares  its  power 
inimitable  in  any  tranflation. 


HISTORY    OF   THE    HYMN. 


HE  authorfhip  of  the  Dies  Irae  is  as- 
cribed, apparently  upon  good  grounds, 
to  Thomas  of  Celano,  so  called  from  a 
small  town  of  that  name  in  Italy.  He 
was  a  friend  and  pupil  and  subsequently  the  biog- 
rapher of  St.  Francis  of  Affifi,  the  founder  of  the 
order  of  Minorites,  (called  also  Friars-Minor,  Grey 
Friars  or  Franciscans,  being  one  of  the  four  orders 
of  mendicant  friars,)  inftituted  in  1208.  Wadding, 
an  Irifhman  and  a  Minorite,  who  lived  in  the  firfl 
half  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  who  wrote  a 
hiftory  of  his  order,  expreflly  refers  it  to  Celano. 
He  mentions  two  other  hymns  or  Sequences  com- 
posed by  him,  one  beginning :  Freglt  viSior  virtua- 
•is ;  the  other  :   SanBitatis  nova  figna.     The  circum- 


XIV  HISTORY    OF    THE    HYMN. 

ftance  of  the  Dominican  Sixtus  Senenfis  affecting 
to  sneer  at  it,  calling  it  rhytbmus  inconditus,  is  re- 
garded as  confirmatory  of  the  opinion,  that  it  was  at 
lead:  the  work  of  a  Franciscan  ;  the  bitter  rivalries 
subfilting  between  the  two  orders  affording,  it  is 
thought,  the  moil:  plaufible  explanation  of  a  criticism 
so  manifeftly  splenetic  and  unjuft.  Another  cor- 
roborative circumftance  is  its  early  admiilion  into 
the  Franciscan  Miffals,  by  which  means  a  knowl- 
edge of  it  w?«  spread  throughout  Europe.  The 
correctness  of  this  inference  is  further  suftained  by 
the  fact,  that,  inscribed  on  a  marble  flab  in  the 
Franciscan  Church  of  St.  Francis  at  Mantua,  was 
found  one  of  the  earlieft  copies  of  the  hymn,  rep- 
resenting, it  is  believed,  the  text  as  it  came  from 
the  hands  of  the  author.  Dr.  Mohnike,  a  learned 
and  able  editor  of  the  Dies  Ira?,  furnifhes  an  old 
copy  of  the  Mantuan  text,  which  differs  from  the 
Received  Text  chiefly  in  this,  that  the  firft.  four 
ftanzas  are  additional.  They  are  here  given  with 
a  translation  annexed  ;  also  the  heading  which  is  as 
follows  : 


HISTORY    OF    THE    HYMN.  XV 

Meditatio  Vetufta  et  Venufta 

de   Noviffimo  Judicio 
qua?  Mantua?  in  aede  D.  Francisci  in 

marmore  legitur. 

i.     Cogita,  anima  fidelis, 
Ad  quid  respondere  velis, 
Ohrifto  venturo  de  coelis. 

Weigh  with  solemn  thought  and  tender, 
What  response,  thou,  Soul,  wilt  render, 
Then  when  Chrift  mail  come  in  splendoi 

2.  Cum  deposcet  rationem 
Ob  boni  omiflionem, 
Ob  mali  commiflionem. 

And  thy  life  fhall  be  inspected, 
All  its  hidden  guilt  detected, 
Evil  done  and  good   neglected. 

3.  Dies  ilia,  dies  irse, 
Quam  conemur  prsevenire 
Obviamque  Deo  ire ; 

For  that  day  of  vengeance  neareth 
Ready  be  each  one  that  heareth 
God  to  meet  when  He  appeareth. 


XVI  HISTORY    OF    THE    HYMNr- 

4.     Seria  contritione, 

Gratue  appreheniione, 
Vitx  emendatione. 

By  repenting,  by  believing, 

By  God's  offered  grace  receiving, 

By  all  evil  courfes  leaving. 

The  succeeding  fixteen  verfes  are  the  same,  with 
flight  variations,  as  those  of  the  Church  or  Received 
text ;  but  in  place  of  the  next  verse,  which  forms 
the  17th  of  this,  beginning:  Oro  supplex  et  acclinis, 
the  JVtantuan  copy  has  the  following  for  its  21ft  and 
concluding  ftanza  : 

21.     Conibrs  ut  beatitatis 
Vivam  cum  juftificatis 
In  aevum  seternitatis.   Amen. 

That  in  fellowship  fraternal 

With  inhabitants  supernal 

I   may  live  the  life  eternal.  Amen. 

That  the  abbreviation  of  the  poem,  by  the  omis- 
fion  of  the  four  opening  ftanzas,  adds  greatly  to  its 
general,  and  rtill  more  to  its  lyric  effectiveness,  there 
can  be  no  doubt.      The  rejected  verfes,  partaking  of 


HISTORY    OF    THE    HYMN.  XV11 

a  quiet  and  meditative  character,  impair  the  force  of 
the  lyric  element.  In  its  present  form,  all  is  vehe- 
ment ftir  and  movement,  from  the  grand  and  flart- 
ling  abruptness  of  its  opening,  to  the  sweet  and 
powerful  pathos  of  its  solemn  and   impreffive  close. 

Befides  Celano,  various  other  names  have  had 
their  supporters  for  the  honor  of  the  authorfhip  of 
this  poem.  It  has  been  attributed  to  Gregory  the 
Great,  who  lived  at  a  period  some  fix  hundred 
years  earlier.  But  this  would  involve  the  neceffity 
of  suppofmg  that  a  poem  of  such  extraordinary  merit 
could  remain  unknown  and  unnoticed  during  so 
many  centuries,  which  is  not  at  all  likely.  Befides, 
it  is  certain,  that,  while  rhyme  was  not  altogether 
unknown  or  unused  at  that  time,  it  had  by  no  means 
reached  that  ftate  of  perfection  which  this  poem 
exhibits.* 

Leonard  Meifter,  a  Swiss  writer,  claimed  that 
Felix  Hammerlin,  (Latinized  into  Malleolus,)  a 
Church  dignitary  of  Zurich,  born  in  1389,  and  who 
died  about  1457,  was  tne  autnor  of  Dies  Irae,  because 
among  Hammerlin's  poems  he  found  a  manuscript 
of  this  hymn  ;  but  the  evidence  is  quite  conclufive, 
*  See  Appendix — Origin  of  Latin   Rhyme. 


XVlll  HISTORY    OF    THE    HYMN. 

that  the  hymn  was  in  exiftence  before  his  time.  In 
the  Hammerlin  text,  the  16th  verse  is  followed  by 
eight  more,  probably  supplied  by  Hammerlin  him- 
self.     They  are  here  subjoined. 

17.  Oro  supplex  a  ruinis, 
Cor  contritum  quafi  cinis  : 
Gere  curam  mei  finis ! 

From  the  ruins  of  creation, 
Make   I   contrite  supplication  : 
Interpose  for  my  salvation  ! 

18.  Lachrymosa  die  ilia, 
Cum  resurget  ex  favilla, 
Tanquam  ignis  ex  scintilla, 

On  that  day  of  woe  and  weeping, 
When,  like  fire  from  spark  upleaping, 
Starts,  from  afhes  where  he's   keeping, 

j 9,     Judicandus  homo  reus, 
Huic  ergo  parce,  Deus ! 
Efto  semper  adjutor  meus ! 

Man  account  to  Thee  to  render. 
Spare  the  miserable  offender  ! 
Be  my  Helper  and  Defender  ! 


HISTORY    OF    THE    HYMN.  X.* 

20.  Quando  coeli  sunt  movendi, 
Dies  adsunt  tunc  tremendi, 
Nullum  tempus  poenitendi. 

When  the  heavens  away  are  flying, 
Days  of  trembling  then  and  crying, 
For  repentance  time  denying; 

ax.     Sed  salvatis  lseta  dies, 

Et  damnatis  nulla  quies, 
Sed  daemonum  effigies. 

To  the  saved  a  day  of  gladness, 
To  the  damned  a  day  of  sadness, 
Demon  forms  and  fhapes  of  madness. 

22.  O  tu  Deus  majeftatis, 
Alme  candor  Trinitatis, 
Nunc  conjunge  cum  beatis  ! 

God  of  infinite  perfection, 
Trinity's  serene  refleftion, 
Give  me  part  with  the  election! 

23.  Vitam  meam  fac  felicem 
Propter  tuam  genetricem, 
Jeffe  florem  et  radicem. 


XX  HISTORY    OF    THE    HYMN. 

Happiness  upon  me  mower, 

For  Thy  Mother's  sake,  with  power 

Who  is  Jefle's  root  and   flower. 

24.     Hraefta  nobis  tunc  levamen, 
Dulce  noftrum  fac  certamen, 
Ut  clamemus  omnes,  Amen  I 

From  Thy  fulness  comfort  pour  us, 
Fight  Thou  with  us  or  fight  for  us, 
So  we'll  fhout,  Amen,  in  chorus. 

Taking  for  granted  that  the  Mantuan  was  the 
original  text,  it  would  follow  that  the  truncation  of 
the  four  introductory  verfes  spoken  of  had  already 
taken  place  at  the  time  of  Hammerlin  ;  and  it  is 
furthermore  obvious  that  the  17th  and  1 8th  verfes 
of  the  Received  Text  muft  have  been  formed  out  of 
the  firft  three  of  the  supplemented  verfes  of  Ham- 
merlin,  as  follows,  viz.  :  by  subftituting,  in  the  17th 
verse,  "  et  acclinis "  for  "  a  ruinis,"  and  taking 
the  firft  two  lines  of  the  two  succeeding  verfes, 
being  triplets,  to  make  up  the  18th  verse,  which 
confifts  of  four  lines.  Bating  a  few  verbal  varia- 
tions, the  firft  fixteen  verfes  of  the  Hammerlin  and 


HISTORY    OF    THE    HYMN.  XXI 

Church  texts  correspond.  The  lad  named  is  founded 
on  the  Roman  Miflal  firft  publifhed  in  1567,  under 
the  sanction  and  after  the  revifion  of  the  Council  of 
Trent.  It  forms  the  bails  of  the  present,  as  it  does 
of  moft  tranflations. 

A  brief  reference  to  some  of  the  more  important 
variations  in  the  text,  and  an  explanation  of  certain 
allufions  which  occur  therein,  may  not  be  uninterest- 
ing. The  firft  line,  Dies  ires,  dies  ilia,  plainly 
points  to  a  pafTage  of  Scripture  from  the  Vulgate, — 
Zephaniah  I.  15.  The  whole  verse  reads  thus  : 
"  Dies  irje,  dies  illa,  dies  tribulationis  et  anguftiae, 
dies  calamitatis  et  miseriae,  dies  tenebrarum  et  caligi- 
nis,  dies  nebulae  et  turbinis,  dies  tubae  et  clangoris." 
In  the  third  line,  the  change  of  the  Mantuan  read- 
ing, "  Petro  "  into  "  David,"  as  it  now  ftands, 
may  have  been  due,  it  is  conjectured,  to  a  feeling 
that  there  was  greater  appropriateness  in  David's 
being  aftbciated  with  the  ante-Chriftian  Sibyl.  From 
the  averfion  felt  to  the  introduction  of  a  heathen 
Sibyl  into  a  Chriftian  and  ftill  more  a  Church 
hymn,  a  Miftal  of  the  diocese  of  Metz,  publifhed  in 
1778,  rejecting  the  third    line,  adopts,   but  without 


xXll  HISTORY    OF    THE    HYMN. 

the  authority  of  a  fingle  manuscript,  another  reading 
as  follows  : 

Dies  irae,  dies  ilia, 
Crucis  expandens  vexilla, 
Solvet  saectum  in  favilla. 

Day  of  wrath,  that  day  amazing, 
High  the  bannered  cross  upraiiing, 
While  the  universe  is  blazing. 

The  alluflon  here  is  to  the  fign  of  the  coming  of 
the  Son  of  Man  in  heaven,  mentioned  in  Aaatthew 
xxiv.  3  ;  and  is  indicative  of  the  belief,  that  the  fign 
there  spoken  of  would  have  its  fulfilment  in  the 
apparition  of  a  cross  in  the  Iky.  But  the  older  and 
the  true  reading  is  doubtless  the  other,  which  refers 
to  the  Sibyl  as  bearing  concurrent  teftimony  with 
the  prophet  of  the  Old  or  the  New  Teftament, 
David  or  Peter,  (Psalm  xcvi.  13  ;  xcvii.  3  ;  xi. 
6  ;  2  Peter  iii.  7,)  touching  the  deftruclion  of  the 
world  and  the  final  judgment.  The  2d,  7th,  and  8th 
books  of  the  u  Sibylline  Oracles  "  are  full  of  pas- 
sages which  refer  to  these,  but  it  is  probable  that  the 
reference    here    is    more    immediately  to   verfes  ex- 


HISTORY    OF    THE    HYMN.  XX111 

tracked  therefrom,  found  in  Lactantius  (Divin.  In- 
ftitut.  lib.  vii.  De  Vita  Beata,  cap.  16—24).  ^n  tne 
earlier  ages  of  the  Church,  these  pretended  prophecies 
were  regarded  with  no  little  veneration  ;  wherefore 
it  is  by  no  means  uncommon  to  find  Chriftian  writ- 
ers placing  them  fide  by  fide  with  Scriptural  proph- 
ecies, and,  as  in  the  case  before  us,  making  solemn 
appeal  to  them.  The  discovery  of  their  true  char- 
acter as  worthless  forgeries  was  reserved  for  a  later 
period. 

This  poem,  which,  there  is  every  reason  to  believe, 
was  originally  the  inspiration  of  retirement,  the  soli- 
tary outpouring  of 

"a  suppliant  heart  all  crufhed 
And  crumbled  into  contrite  duft," — 

to  adopt  the  language  of  Crafhaw's  verfion  at  the  17th 
verse, —  came  afterwards,  when  it  had  pafTed  into 
Church  use,  to  receive  the  title  of  Sequence,  from 
the  place  afligned  to  it  in  the  service  of  the  Mass 
for  the  Dead.  The  precise  time  when  this  occurred 
cannot  be  determined,  but  it  muff,  have  been  early, 
for  Albizzi  speaks  of  it  as  being  in  common  use 
as   a  Sequence   in  1385.      For  an  explanation  of  this 


XXIV  HISTORY    OF    THE    HYMN. 

term,  the   reader   is   referred  to  the  Appendix  at  the 
end  of  this  volume. 

If  the  origin  of  the  hymn  be  somewhat  obscure, 
not  so  have  been  its  subsequent  fortunes.  Through 
the  long  centuries  that  have  elapsed  fince  the 
time  it  firft  became  known  to  the  world,  its  ex- 
traordinary merits  have  been  fteadily  recognized. 
Its  light  has  been  that  of  a  ftar,  whose  keen  and 
diamond  luftre  intermits  not  nor  grows  dim,  but 
mines  on  the  same  from  age  to  age.  Its  miffion 
from  the  beginning  has  been  one  of  power.  To 
some,  there  is  reason  to  believe,  it  has  been  "  the 
power  of  God  unto  salvation."  Scattered  every- 
where along  its  track  are  seen  the  luminous  foot- 
prints of  its  victorious  progress  as  the  subduer  of 
hearts.  The  o-reatefr,  minds  have  delighted  to  bear 
teftimony  to  its  worth.  Goethe  evinced  his  appre- 
ciation of  it  by  introducing  certain  verses  of  it  into 
his  "Fauft," — with  how  grand  an  effect  we  all  know. 
Boswell  relates  of  Dr.  Johnson,  that,  M  when  he 
would  try  to  repeat  the  celebrated  Prosa  EcclefiajHca 
pro  Mortuis,  beginning  :  Dies  irce,  dies  ilia,  he  could 
never  pass  the  ftanza  ending  thus  :  Tantus  labor  non 
fit  cajjiis,  without  burfting   into  a  flood   of  tears." 


HISTORY    OF     THE    HYMN.  XXV 

It  is  said  that  Ancina,  a  ProfefTor  of  Aaedicine  ir 
the  Univerfity  of  Turin,  was  so  ftrongly  affected  by 
hearing  one  day  the  Dies  Irae  chanted  in  the  service 
for  the  dead,  that  he  determined  to  abandon  the 
world.  He  afterwards  became  Bifriop  of  Saluzzo. 
Milman,  in  his  "  Hiftory  of  Chriftianitv,"  speaking  of 
the  Latin  poetry  of  the  Christian  Church,  remarks  : 
u  There  is  nothing,  in  my  judgment,  to  be  compared 
with  the  monkifh  Dies  ir<z,  dies  ilia.''''  To  these 
names  might  be  added  those  of  many  other  eminent 
scholars  and  critics,  all  bearing  like  teftimony.  But 
the  crowning  proof  of  its  unrivalled  excellence  is 
found  in  the  fact,  that,  mingled  with  the  fighs  and 
gaspings  of  diffolving  Nature,  the  measured  beat  of 
its  melodious  rhythm  has  been  so  often  heard  ;  now, 
it  may  be,  in  the  soft  murmur  of  words  half  audible, 
and  now  in  the  clear  tones  of  a  dittincf.  utterance, 
ifiuing  from  the  pale  and  trembling  lips  of  the  dying. 
The  Earl  of  Roscommon,  we  are  told,  repeated  with 
great  energy  and  devotion,  in  the  moment  when  he 
expired,  two  lines  of  his  own  translation  of  the  17th 
verse  : — 

"  My  God,  my  Father,  and  my   Friend, 
Do  not  forsake  me  in  my  end  ! " 
d 


XXVI  HISTORY    OF    THE    HYMN. 

Sir  Walter  Scott  evinced  his  regard  for  it  in  the  same 
affecting  manner,  during  his  lait  hours  :  "  We  very 
often,"  says  his  biographer,  "  heard  diftinctly  the 
cadence  of  the   Dies   Ira?." 

It  is  certainly  somewhat  remarkable,  that,  while 
thus  solemnly  aflbciated  with  the  dying  moments  of 
these  two  illuftrious  matters  of  song,  who  had  likewise 
employed  their  pens  in  the  talk  of  rendering  it  into 
Englifh,  it  mould  have  had  a  connection  not  diflim- 
ilar  with  the  death  of  that  great  composer  by  whose 
means  this  immortal  poem  has  come  to  be  worthily 
wedded  to  immortal  mufic.  It  is  well  known  that 
Mozart's  Requiem  is  founded  on  it.  This,  his 
greatefr.  work,  perhaps,  was  deftined  also  to  be  his 
laft,  of  which,  it  is  said,  he  had  a  solemn  presenti- 
ment. His  death  occurred  before  it  was  entirely 
finifhed.  Befides  Mozart,  other  diftinguifhed  com- 
posers, such  as  Cherubini,  Haydn,  Jomelli,  Palaftrina, 
and  Pergolefi,  have  exercised  their  genius  upon  the 
same  theme  and  the  same  text. 


TRANSLATIONS    OF   THE    HYMN. 


HE  number  of  tranflations  made  of  this 
hymn  into  different  languages  it  were 
not  easy  to  eftimate.  Those  in  Ger- 
man are  particularly  numerous.  In  a 
work  dedicated  to  these,  edited  by  Dr.  F.  G.  Lisco, 
(Berlin,  1840,)  as  many  as  seventy  verfions,  more  or 
less  complete,  are  given  ;  the  number  being  further 
increased  three  years  afterwards  by  the  addition  of 
seventeen  others,  appended  to  a  volume  of  tranfla- 
tions,  by    the    same    editor,   of   the    Stabat   A4ater.* 


*  For  the  loan  of  both  the  above  works  the  writer  is  in- 
debted to  the  Rev.  William  R.  Williams,  D.  D.,  who,  in  a 
Note,  afterwards  somewhat  enlarged  and  thrown  into  an  Appen- 
dix, affixed  to  an  Address  on  the  "  Conservative  Principle  of 
our  Literature,"  firft  publifhed  in  1843,  and  subsequently  in- 
cluded  in   his  volume   of  "  Miscellanies,"   has,  with  his  usual 


XXVlll  TRANSLATIONS     OF     THE     HYMN. 

There  is  one  in  French,  one  in  Romaic  or  Modern 
Greek,  one  in  Dutch,  and  one  in  Latin,  all  the  reft 
being  German.  In  nearly  every  case,  pains  have 
been  taken  to  preserve  the  exact  measure  and  form 
of  the  original.  The  superior  flexibility  of  the  Ger- 
man, and  its  greater  supply  of  words  adapted  for 
double  rhyme,  give  tranflators  in  that  language  a 
decided  advantage.  The  difficulty  involved  in  tripli- 
cating the  double  rhymes,  owing  to  the  poverty  of 
our  language  in  words  suitable  for  the  purpose,  with- 
out practicing  awkward  and  inelegant  inverfions,  is 
probably  the  reason  why  English  tranflators,  even 
where  they  have  been  careful  to  retain  the  triplet 
form  of  the  ftanza,  have  failed  to  preserve  the 
rhyming  close. 

Crafhaw's,  one  of  the  oldeft  and  nobleft  of  the 
English  tranflations,  and  which  in  the  opinion  of  an 
eminent  critic  was  not  surpaiTed  by  anything  he  ever 
wrote,  is  done  in  quatrains,  or  iingle  rhymed  couplets 

eloquence  and  exhauftive  learning,  given  a  very  full  and  inftruc- 
tive  account  of  this  hymn  and  its  tranflations  ;  adding  in  the 
later  editions  a  verfion  of  his  own,  one  of  the  first  made  in 
ternary  double  rhyme. 


TRANSLATIONS     OF     THE     HYMN.  XXIX 

repeated  ;  and,  on  account  of  the  freeness  of  the  ren- 
dering, might  more  properly  be  called  a  reproduction 
than  a  tranflation.  The  Earl  of  Roscommon,  cele- 
brated in  Dryden's  verse  as  the  greateft  poet  of  his 
time,  was  the  author  of  a  verfion  praised  by  Pope 
as  the  bed  of  his  poetical  performances  ;  although  he 
is  confidered  as  having  borrowed  both  from  Crafhaw 
and  Dryden.  It  is  in  triplets  like  the  original,  but 
without  double  rhyme,  and  the  verse  is  iambic  in- 
ftead  of  trochaic. 

The  few  verfes  introduced  by  Sir  Walter  Scott 
into  the  "  Lay  of  the  Laft  Minftrel,"  and  which  have 
found  their  way  into  almoft  all  the  more  recent  Col- 
lections of  Hymns  used  in  our  Churches,  though 
spirited  and  impreffive,  can  scarcely  be  called  a  trans- 
lation, being  little  more  than  an  echo  of  one  or  two 
of  the  leading  sentiments  of  the  Latin  original. 
Another  familiar  hymn,  contained  in  moft  Hymn 
books,  commencing, 

"  Lo  !   He  comes  in  clouds  descending," 

purports  to  be  a  tranflation  of  the  Dies  Irae  ;  but 
in  respect  neither  to  form   nor  spirit  does   it  corre- 


XXX  TRANSLATIONS     OF    THE     HYMN. 

spond  very  accurately  to  the  original.  Although  there 
are  other  verfions  of  more  or  less  merit,  some  made 
by  our  own  scholars,  a  further  enumeration  might  be 
tedious.  "  It  is  not  wonderful,"  as  Trench  remarks, 
uthat  a  poem  such  as  this  mould  have  continually 
allured  and   continually  defied  tranflators." 

The  Author  of  the  Translations  here  publifhed 
scarcely  knows  how  to  fhield  himself  from  the  im- 
putation of  presumption  to  which  his  attempt  ex- 
poses him.  The  number  of  his  verfions  is  Thir- 
teen. The  first  fix  have  the  somewhat  rare  merit, 
so  far  at  leafr.  as  Englifh  verfions  are  concerned,  of 
being  metrically  conformed,  both  as  it  respects 
rhyme  and  rhythm,  to  the  original.  The  five  suc- 
ceeding ones  are  like  in  rhythm,  but  vary  from  the 
original  in  not  preserving  the  double  rhyme.  The 
one  which  follows  is  in  iambic  triplets,  like  Roscom- 
mon's ;  and  the  laft  in  quatrains,  after  the  manner 
of  Crafhaw's  verfion. 

It  has  been  the  aim  of  the  Translator  to  be  in  all 
cafes  as  faithful  as  pofiible  to  the  senfe  and  spirit 
of  the  original,  and  likewise  to  the  letter,  but  nor 
so    flavifhly   as    to    preclude   variety.       He    has    en- 


TRANSLATIONS    OF    THE    HYMN.  XXXi 

deavored  to  carry  out  likeness  in  unlikeness,  and  to 
give  to  each  verfion,  so  far  as  practicable,  the  intereft 
of  a  diftinct  poem.  How  far  he  has  succeeded 
others  muft  judge.  The  preservation  of  the  double 
rhyme  involved  some  special  difficulties,  which  he  has 
overcome  as  well  as  he  could  ;  but  he  would  not  be 
surprised  if  some  readers  preferred  the  eafier  metres, 
and  indulges  the  hope  that  the  multiplication  of  ver- 
fions  may  serve,  among  other  things,  to  meet  this 
diverfity  of  tafle.  But  there  are  some,  if  he  mis- 
takes not,  who  enjoy  those  pleasing  surprises  in 
viewing  an  object,  that  result  from  an  altered  atti- 
tude and  a  new  angle  of  vision, — the  curious  changes 
which  follow  every  fresh  turn  of  a  revolving  kaleido- 
scope,— and  the  writer  is  willing  therefore  to  believe 
that  such,  at  any  rate,  will  not  be  displeased  at  this 
attempt  to  supply  the  deficiency  of  one  verfion  by 
another  and  yet  another,  in  the  hope  that  thereby 
the  original  may  be  exhibited,  approximately  at  least, 
in   its  solid   entireness. 

Young,  in  his  "  EfTay  on  Lyric  Poetry,"  ailerts 
that  difficulty  overcome  gives  grace  and  pleasure, 
and  he  accounts  for  the  pleasure  of  rhyme  in  general 


XXXII  TRANSLATIONS    OF    THE    HYMN. 

upon  this  principle.  Having  failed  in  his  own  case 
to  afford  an  exemplification  of  great  success  in  this 
particular,  his  critic  and  biographer,  Johnson,  some- 
what sarcaftically  remarks  :  "  But  then  the  writer 
muff,  take  care  that  the  difficulty  is  overcome  ;  that 
is,  he  muft  make  rhyme  confifl:  with  as  perfect 
senfe  and  expreffion  as  would  be  expected,  if  he 
were  perfectly  free  from  that  fhackle."  Hence,  the 
greater  the  difficulties  to  be  surmounted,  the  greater 
is  the  need  of  elaboration,  until  art  conceals  art. 

The  present  Tranflator,  recognizing  fully  the  pro- 
priety of  the  rule  here  ftated,  does  not  feel  that  he 
has  any  right  to  plead  the  arduousness  of  his  talk,  as 
an  excuse  for  any  inftances,  if  such  there  be,  of 
forced  and  unnatural  conitruction,  resorted  to  in 
order  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  rhyme  or  metre. 
What  is  called  poetic  license  is,  he  is  aware,  a 
license  of  power  and  grace,  and  not  of  weakness  and 
deformity,  being  tantamount  to  a  license  to  dance  or 
fing,  in  place  of  ordinary  walking  or  speaking.  Po- 
etic chains,  undoubtedly,  were  meant  not  to  confine 
and  cripple,  but  to  regulate  movement  in  conformity 
with  settled   laws  ;    the  object  being,  not  to   punifh 


TRANSLATIONS    OF    THE    HYMN.  XXXU1 

speech,  but  to  exalt  and  honor  it, — to  grace  language, 
not  disgrace  it. 

To  preserve,  in  connection  with  the  utmost  fidelity 
and  ftrictness  of  rendering,  all  the  rhythmic  merits 
of  the  Latin  original, — to  attain  to  a  vital  likeness  as 
well  as  to  an  exacl:  literalness,  at  the  same  time  that 
nothing  is  sacrificed  of  its  mufical  sonorousness  and 
billowy  grandeur,  easy  and  graceful  in  its  swing  as 
the  ocean  on  its  bed, — to  make  the  verbal  copy, 
otherwise  cold  and  dead,  glow  with  the  fire  of  lyric 
passion, — to  reflect,  and  that  too  by  means  of  a  fingle 
verfion,  the  manifold  aspects  of  the  many-sided  orig- 
inal, exhaufting  at  once  its  wonderful  fulness  and 
pregnancy, — to  cause  the  white  light  of  the  primitive 
so  to  pass  through  the  medium  of  another  language 
as  that  it  mail  undergo  no  refraction  whatever, — 
would  be  defirable,  certainly,  were  it  practicable  ; 
but  so  much  as  this  it  were  unreasonable  to  expect 
in  any  tranflation. 

All  the  verfions  here  given  were  written  and  nearly 

ready  for  the  press   more   than  two  years  ago  ;   but, 

influenced   partly  by  a  senfe  of  their  imperfectness, 

and  partly  by  a  doubt  as  to  the  reception  that  a  book 

e 


XXXIV  TRANSLATIONS    OF    THE    HYMN. 

exclufively  devoted  to  a  fingle  hymn  might  meet 
with  from  the  public,  the  Translator  has  delayed 
their  appearance  until  now,  when,  encouraged  by 
the  favorable  opinion  exprelTed  by  some,  whose 
names,  were  it  proper  to  give  them,  would  be  re* 
garded,  he  doubts  not,  as  an  apology  for  his  bold- 
ness, he  ventures  the  experiment  of  publication. 
He  does  not  deny  that  the  amount  of  public  favor 
that  has  been  already  accorded  to  two  of  the  ver- 
fions,  viz.,  those  marked  1.  and  II.,  publifhed  anony- 
moufly  in  the  "  Newark  Daily  Advertiser"  sev- 
eral years  fince,  the  firft  as  long  ago  as  1847,  has 
had  something  to  do  with  overcoming  his  diltruit. 
To  avoid  misapprehenfion,  it  is  right  to  ftate,  that 
two  verses  of  the  firft  were  introduced  into  Mrs. 
Stowe's  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  and  by  these  acci- 
dental means  have  enjoyed  a  world-wide  currency. 
More  recently  this  verfion  has  been  honored  with 
a  place  in  the  "  Plymouth  Collection  of  Hymns  and 
Tunes,"  edited  by  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  and  set 
to  mufic.  It  was,  so  far  as  the  Tranflator  knows, 
the  firft.  attempt,  with  a  fingle  exception,  to  repro- 
duce  in    English   the  ternary  double    rhyme   of    the 


DE    NOVISSIMO   JUDICIO. 

g^  IES  irae,  dies  ilia 

}    Solvet  sieclum  in  favilla, 
?    Telle   David   cum  Sibylla. 

Quantus  tremor  eft  futurus, 
Quando  Judex  eft  venturus, 
Cuncla  ftiicl:e  discuflurus  ! 

Tuba,   minim   spargens   sonum 
Per  sepulchra  regionum, 
Coget  omnes   ante  thronum. 


Mors  ftupebit  et  natura, 
Quum  resurget  creatura 
Judicanti   responsura. 


DIES    IR^E. 

Liber  scriptus  proferetur, 
In  quo  totum  continetur, 
De  quo   mundus  judicetur. 

Judex  ergo  quum  sedebit, 
Quidquid  latet,  apparebit, 
Nil  inultum  remanebit. 

Quod  sum  miser  tunc  dicturus, 
Quern   patronum    rogaturus, 
Quum   vix  juftus   fit  securus  ? 

Rex  tremendae  majeftatis, 
Qui   salvandos   salvas  gratis, 
Salva   me,   fons   pietatis ! 

Recordare,  Jesu   pie, 
Quod   sum   causa  Euae   vise, 
Ne   me   perdas   ilia  d;~  ' 


le 


Quaerens   me   sedifti   lailus, 
Redemifli   crucem   paflus  : 
Tantus  labor  noil  fit  callus ! 


DIES     IRJE. 

Jufte  Judex   ultionis, 
Donum  fac  remiffionis 
Ante  diem  rationis  ! 

Ingemisco  tanquam   reus, 
Culpa  rubet  vultus   meus  : 
Supplicanti  parce,   Deus  ! 

Qui   Mariam   absolvifti, 
Et  latronem   exaudifti, 
Mihi  quoque   spem   dedifti. 

Prneces   meae  non   sunt  dignae, 
Sed   tu   bonus   fac  benigne 
Ne  pcrtnni  cremer  igne  ! 

Inter  oves  locum   praefta, 
Et  ab  haedis  me  sequeftra, 
Statuens  in  parte  dextra ! 

Confutatis   maledictis, 
Flammis  acribus  addiclis, 


DIES    IRJE. 

Oro  supplex  et  acclinis, 
Cor  contritum  quasi   cinis 
Gere  curam   mei   finis  ! 

Lachrymosa  dies   ilia, 
Qua  resurget   ex   favilla, 
Judicandus   homo  reus  : 
Huic   ergo  parce,   Deus ! 


I. 


>AY  of  wrath,  that  day  of  burning, 
)    Seer  and  Sibyl  speak  concerning, 
'    All  the  world   to  afhes  turning. 


Oh,  what  fear  (hall  it  engender, 

When  the  Judge  fhall  come  in  splendor, 

Strict  to  mark  and  juft  to  render  ! 

Trumpet,  scattering  sounds  of  wonder, 
Rending  sepulchres  asunder, 
Shall  resiftless  summons  thunder. 


All  aghaft  then  Death   fhall   fhiver, 
And  great   Nature's  frame  fhall  quiver, 
When  the  graves  their  dead  deliver. 


DIES    1RJE. 


Volume,   from   which   nothing's  blotted, 

Evil   done  nor  evil  plotted, 

Shall   be  brought  and  dooms   allotted. 


When  fhall   fit  the  Judge  unerring, 
He'll   unfold  all   here  occurring 
Vengeance  then  no  more  deferring. 


What  fhall   /  say,  that  time   pending  ? 
Ask  what  advocate's  befriending, 
When  the  juft   man   needs  defending  ? 

Dreadful  King,  all  power  poiTefTmg, 

Saving  freely  those  confefling, 

Save  thou  me,   O  Fount  of  BleflinLi  ' 

Think,  O  Jesus,  for  what  reason 

Thou  didft  bear  earth's  spite  and  treason, 

Nor  me  lose  in  that  dread  season  ! 

Seeking:  me   Thv  worn   feet  hafted, 
On  the  cross   Thy  soul  death   tafted  : 
Let  such   travail  not  be  wafted  ! 


DIES    IRiE. 

Righteous  Judge  of  retribution  ! 
Make   me  gift  of  absolution 
Ere  that  day  of  execution  ! 

Culprit-like,  I  plead,  heart-broken, 
On   my  cheek  fhame's  crimson   token: 
Let  the  pardoning  word  be  spoken ! 

Thou,  who  Mary  gav'ft  remiflion, 
Heard'ft   the  dying  Thief's   petition, 
Cheer'ft  with   hope   my  loft  condition. 

Though   my   prayers  be  void  of  merit, 
What  is  needful,  Thou  confer  it, 
Left  I   endless   fire  inherit  ! 

Be  there,  Lord,   my  place  decided 
With  Thy   fheep,  from  goats  divided, 
Kindly  to    Thy  right  hand  guided  ! 

When  th'  accursed  away  are  driven, 

To  eternal  burnings  given, 

Call   me  with   the  blessed  to  heaven! 


DIES    IR^E. 

I  beseech  Thee,  proftrate  lying, 
Heart  as  afhes,  contrite,  fighing, 
Care   for  me  when   I   am   dying  ! 

Day  of   tears  and   late   repentance, 
Alan   (hull  rise  to  hear  his  sentence 
Him,  the  child  of  guilt  and  error, 
Spare,   Lord,   in  that  hour  of  terror  ! 


u. 


jj^?)  AY  fhall  dawn  that  has   no  morrow, 
)     Day  of  vengeance,  day  of  sorrow, 
X    As  from   Prophecy  we  borrow. 

It  fhall  burn,  that  day  of  trouble, 
As  a  furnace  heated  double, 
And  the  wicked  fhall  be   ftubble. 

O,  what  trembling,  when  the  rifted 
Skies  fhall  fhow  the  Judge  uplifted, 
And  all   ftrictly  fhall   be   fifted! 

Trump  fhall  sound  a  blafl  appalling, 
On  the  grave's  deep  ftillness  falling, 
Small  and  great  before   Him   calling. 

Death  with   fear  fhall  be  o'ertaken, 
Nature  to  her  base  be  fhaken, 
When   the   fleeping  dead   fhall   waken. 

2 


10  DIES    IRJE. 

Volume   mail  be  brought,  whose  pages 

Regifter  the  deeds  of  ages, 

Whence  the  world  mail  have  juft  wages. 

When  that  Court  mall   hold  its  seflion, 
Every   mouth   mall   make  confeflion, 
Left   unpunifhed  no  transgreflion. 

How,  alas  !   in  that  dread  season, 
Shall  I   answer  for  my  treason, 
When  the  righteous   fear  with  reason  ? 

Awful  King,  who  nothing  craved, 
Since  Thyself  full  ransom  gaveft, 
Save  Thou   me,   who   freely  saved ! 

Me,  for  whom,  with  love  so  tender, 
Thou   didft  leave  Thy  throne  of  splendor, 
Jesus,  do  not  then  surrender  ! 

Wearily   for  me  Thou  toiledft, 
Diedft  for  me  and   Satan  spoiledft  : 
Let  not  triumph   whom   Thou   foiled  ft  ! 


DIES    1RJE.  I  I 

Thou,  whose   frown  will  be  damnation, 
Grant   me  earner!:  of  salvation, 
Ere  that  day  of  consummation  ! 

Culprit-like,   I,  self-convilted, 
Blufhing,  proftrate,  and  afflicted* 
Kneel   for  mercy   unreftricted. 

Thou,  who  Mary's   faith  rewardedft, 
Pardon   to  the  Thief  accordedft, 
Me,  too,   trembling  hope  afTbrdedft. 

Poor  my  prayers,  but  give  ensample 
Of  Thy  goodness   rich   and  ample, 
Left  insulted  Juftice  trample  ! 

With  Thy  chosen   flock  unspotted, 
Severed   from  the   herd  besotted, 
Be  my  place  that  day  allotted  ! 

When  Thy  curse  fhall  blaft  and  wither, 

Doom   to  hell  and   banifh  thither, 

Bid   me  with   the  blefTed,   Come   hither  ! 


\2 


DIES     IR^E. 


Care   for  me  as  one   who   feareth, 
One   who   hafteth   when  he  heareth, 
When  my  solemn  exit  neareth! 

When   the  light  of  that  day   flames, 
And   man   rises   from   his   allies 
At  Thy  bar  account  to  render, 
Spare  then.   Lord,   the   pale  offender  ! 


Ill, 


&P(nAY    of  Vengeance  and   of  Y\  ages, 

)    Fiery   goal   of  all   the  ages, 
§    Burden   of  prophetic   pages  ! 

Guilty  wretches,  vainly   fleeing 

From  that  flaming  Eye,   whose  seeing 

Searches  all   the  depths  of  being. 

Wakened  by  that  Trump  of  Wonder, 
Answering  Earthquakes,  roaring  under, 
Heave  and   split  the  ground  asunder  ; 

And  the  buried   generations, 
People  of  all   times  and   nations, 
Live  again   and   take  their   ftations, 

Each   immortal   pale  offender, 

Round  the  Great  White  Throne  of  Spiendor, 

StricT:  account  to  God   to   render ; 


14  DIES    1RJE. 

Who,   unmocked  and  unmiftaken, 
Shall   pronounce  the  doom   unfhaken, 
And   long   flumbering   vengeance   waken. 

What  if  weighed  and   found  deficient? 
Standing  at    that   bar  omniscient, 
Who   hath  righteousness   sufficient  ? 

Dreadful  Majefly  of  Heaven  J 
Freely  thy   salvation 's  given, 
Fount  of  Mercy,  save   me  even  ! 

Me,   for   whom   Thou   ihame   didft   borrow, 
Trod'ft   the  paths  of  earthly   sorrow, 
Lose   not  on   that  dreadful   morrow ! 

Seeking  me  Thou  weary  sankeit, 

All  my  cup  of  trembling  drankeit, 

Nor   from   death,   to  save   me,   shrankeft. 

Mufl   I   fink  yet  to  perdition  ? 
God  of  Vengeance,  grant  remiffion, 
Ere   that  Day  of  Inquifition  ! 


DIES    IR^E.  15 

Filled   with   fhame  and  confternatioru 
Lifting  hands  of  supplication, 
Spare  me,  God  of  my  Salvation  ! 

Let  such  grace  be   manifefted, 

As  on  weeping  Mary  refted, 

As  was  towards  the  Thief  attefted  ! 

Though  no  worth  in  me  discerning, 
Spurn  not,  though  I  merit  spurning : 
Rescue  me  from  endless  burning  ! 

When  divifion  is  effected 

'Mong  the  race  of  men  collected, 

Leave  me  not  with  the  rejected  ! 

When  Thy  curse  from  Thee  mail  sever, 
Kindling  hells,  extinguished  never, 
Join   me  to  Thyself  forever ! 

From  the  afhes  of  contrition, 
From  the  depths  I  make  petition  : 
Grant  my  soul  a  safe   dismiflion  ! 


i6 


DIES     1RJE. 


When  that  day  fhall   snare   th'   unwary, 
And  fhall  guilty  man   unbury, 
Spare  me  then,   Dread   Adversary  ! 


IV, 


•)AY   of  Prophecy!    it  flames, 

)    Falling  spheres    together  dairies, 

V    And  the  world  consumes   to  aihes. 

m 

O,  what  fear  of  wrath   impending, 
When  the  Judge  is  seen   descending, 
Inquifition   ftrict  intending! 

God's  awakening  Trump  fhall  scatter 
Summons  through  the  world  of  matter, 
And  the  Throne  of  Death  fhall  matter. 

What  amazement,  when   forgotten 
Generations,  dead  and  rotten, 
Suddenly  are  rebegotten! 

Boole  and   Record  universal 
Shall  be  opened  for  rehearsal, 
Whence  the  doom  without  reversal. 

3 


f8  DIES    IR^E. 

When   by  that  dread  Judge  inspected, 
Nothing  fhall   pass   undetected, 
Unavenged   nor   uncorrected. 

How   fhall  I,  a  wretch   unliable, 

Bide  that  hour  inevitable, 

When  the  juft   man  scarce  is  able  ? 

Dreadful  King,  from  Thee,  the  Giver, 
Flows  salvation  like  a  river  : 
Fount  of  Mercy,  me  deliver  ! 

Thou,  who,  touched  with   my  condition, 
Cam'st    to    save  me  from  perdition, 
Be  Thou   mindful  of  Thy   miflion  ! 

Let  Thy  death  for  my  offences, 
Horror  of  Thy  soul  and  senses, 
Be  not  void   of  consequences ! 

Blot  my  fins,  ere  that  revifion, 
Day  of  ultimate  decifion, 
When  Thy  foes  are  in  derifion  ! 


DIES    IRJE.  19 

From  my  eyes  repentance  gufhes, 

O'er  my  cheeks  spread  crimson  blufhes  : 

Spare  the  worm   Thy  terror  crufhes  ! 

Thou,  who  wert  of  old  moft  gracious 
Ev'n  to  Tinners  moft  audacious, 
Is  Thy  mercy  now  less   spacious  ? 

Worthless  all  the  prayers  I  offer  : 
Grace   muft  seal  what  grace  doth   proffer, 
Else  I  perifh  with  the  scoffer. 

When  Thou   malceft  separation, 
With  Thy  sheep  affign  my  ftation, 
Saints  of"  every  age  and  nation  ! 

When  the  malison  eternal 
Banifhes  to  fires  infernal, 
Bid  me  enter  realms   supernal ! 

Thou,  who  doft,  with   care  unfleeping, 
Keep  that  trufted  to  Thy  keeping, 
Save  my  eves   from  endless   weeping  ! 


iO 


DIES    IRjE. 


Day   of  tears,   consuming,   cruel, 
With   a  burning  world   for  fuel ! 
Man  fhall  rise  from  glowing  embers, 
Made  complete   in  all   his   members  : 
Ah!   what  plea  will  then   be   valid, 
When  the  firmer,   trembling,   pallid, 
Waits   to   hear  his  sentence  given  ? 
Spare  him  then,  O   God  of  Heaven ! 


fc^  AY  of  vengeance,  end  of  scorning, 
u    World  in  allies,  world  in   mourning, 
$    Whereof  Prophets   utter  warning  ! 

m 

O,  what  trembling,  when  the   falling 
Rocks  and  mountains  hear  men  calling, 
"Hide  me  from  that  face  appalling!  " 

freezing  fear  the  blood  will  thicken, 
Death  and   Hell   be   horror-ftricken, 
When  the   myftic  Trump  fhall  quicken 

All  the  buried  duft  of  ages, — 
Monarchs,  chieftains,   ftatesmen,   sages, 
Actors  on   unnumbered   ftages, — 

Summoned  to  the  dread  recital 
Of  that  Record  ftricl:  and   vital, 
Basis  of  a  juft  requital. 


22  DIES    IRJE. 

Every  mafk  of  falsehood  riven, — 
Guilt,   from  every  covert  driven, 
Shall  to  punifhment  be  given. 

'Mid  the  horror  and  confufion 
Of  that  sorrowful   conclufion 
Of  each  miserable  delufion, 

Whither,  ah!  mall  I  betake  me? 

Thou,  O  King,  whose  terrors  make  me, 

Of  Thy  grace  a  trophy  make  me ! 

Jesus  !  by  Thine  incarnation, 
By  Thy  mimon  of  salvation, 
Then  avert  juft  condemnation  ! 

By  Thy  pity,  love  unfailing, 
By  the  cross's  bitter  nailing, 
Let  not  all  be  unavailing  ! 

Dread  Avenger  of  transgremon, 
Cleanse  these  lips  that  make   confeflion, 
Ere  th'  awards  of  that  laft  seffion. 


DIES    1RJE.  23 

Spare  a  culprit,  groans   faft   heaving, 
Self-convicted,  blufhing,  grieving, 
In  Thy  power  and  grace  believing. 

Since  Thy  nature  doth  not  vary, 

Thou,  who  heard'ft  the  Thief  and   Mary, 

My  transgreflions  blot  and  bury  ! 

Worthless   works  behind   me  cafling — 
Grace  muft  save,  not  prayer  nor  fafting, 
From  the  fire  that's  everlafting. 

On  Thy  right  hand   fix  my  ftation 
With  the  chosen  generation, 
In  the  fheep-fold  of  salvation  ! 

When  Thy  curse  the  wicked  chases, 
With   the  bleft  in  heavenly  places 
Call  me  to  Thy  dear  embraces! 

Care  for  me,  whom  guilt  abafhes, 
Proftrate,  contrite,  heart  as  afhes, 
When   that  day  of  terror  flames ! 


2\  DIES    1RJE. 

Day  of  weeping  and   of  wailing, 
Human  hearts  and  fates   unveiling  ! 
Then,  when  Time  fhall  be  no  longer, 
And  the  ftrong  yields  to  the  Stronger, 
Death  and   Hell   their  dead    surrender, 
And   the   Sea  its  own  fhall  tender, 
Multitudinous,   unbounded 
Generations   rise  aftounded, 
Each  to  answer  for  his  finning, 
He  who  lived  at  the  beginning, 
He  who  when   the   world   is   hoary, — 
Spare,  O,  spare,  Thou  God  of  Glory! 


VI. 

e)  AY  of  wrath  and  confrernation, 
)    Day  of  fiery  consummation, 
>    Prophefied  in   Revelation ! 


O,   what  horror  on  all   faces, 

When  the  coming  Judge  each   traces, 

Flaming,  dreadful,  in  all  places  ! 

Trump  fhall  sound,  and  every  Tingle 
Mortal  slumberer's  ears  fhall  tingle, 
And  the  dead  fhall  rise  and  mingle  : 

All  of  every  tribe  and  nation, 
That  have  lived  fince  the  creation, 
Answering  that  dread  citation. 

Book,  where  actions  are  recorded, 

All  the  ages   have  afforded, 

Shall  be   brought  and  dooms  awarded. 

4 


26  DIES    IR^E. 

Judge,  who  fits  at  that  affizes, 
Shall,  deceived  by  no  disguises, 
Try   each   work  that  man  devises. 

How   fhall   I,   a  wretch   polluted, 

Answer  then   to  fins   imputed, 

When  the  juft  man's  case  is   mooted  ? 

Awful  Monarch  of  Creation  ! 
Saving  without  compensation, 
Save   me,   Fountain  of  Salvation ! 

Lose   me  not  then,  Jefus,  seeing 
I   am   Thine  by  gift  of  being, 
Doubly  Thine  by  price  of  freeing ! 

Thou,   the  Lord  of  Life  and   Glory, 
Hung'ft  a  victim  gamed  and  gory: 
Let  not  all  be  nugatory ! 

Pardon,  Thou  whose  vengeance  smiteth, 
But  whom   mercy  moir.   delighteth, 
Ere  that  reckoning  day  affrighteth ! 


DIES    1RJE.  27 

As  a  culprit,  ftand  I  groaning, 
Blufhing,  my  demerit  owning  : 
Sprinkle   me  with  blood  atoning  ! 

Thou,  who  Mary's  sins  remittedft, 
And  the  softened  Thief  acquittedft, 
Likewise   hope  to   me  permitted!!:. 

Weak  these  prayers  Thy  throne  afTailing ; 
But  let  grace,  o'er  guilt  prevailing, 
Save   me   from   eternal  wailing ! 

While  the  goats  afar  are  driven, 
'Mid  Thy  fheep   me  place  be  given, 
Blood-waihed   favorites  of  Heaven! 

While  "  Depart !  "  fhall  doom  and  gather 
Those  to  flame,  address   me  rather : 
"  Come  thou  blefTed  of  my  Father  !  " 

In  my  final  hour,  when  faileth 

Heart  and  flefh,  and   my  cheek  paleth, 

Grant  that  succor  which   availeth ! 


28 


DIES    IRJE. 


Day   unutterably  solemn  ! 
Crypt  and   pyramid  and  column, 
Ifle  and  continent  and  ocean, 
Rocking  with   a  fearful   motion, 
Shall   give   up,  a  countless   number 
Starting  from   their  long,  long  flumber, 
Horror  damping  every  feature, 
While   is  judged   each   finful   creature, 
End  of  pending  controversy  : 
Spare  Thou  then,   O   God  of  Alercy  ! 


VII. 

)AY  of  wrath,  that  day  of  days, 
Present  to  my  thought  always, 
$    When     the    world     fhall     burn     and 

<&&&m     blaze! 

O,  what  trembling,   O,   what  fear, 
When  th'   Omniscient  Judge  draws  near, 
Scanning  all  with   eyes   severe ! 

When  the  Trump  of  God  fhall  sound 
Through  the  vague  and  vaft  profound 
Of  the  regions  under  ground  ; 

And  th'   innumerable  dead, 
Answering  to  that  summons  dread, 
Shall  forsake  their  dufty  bed  ; 

And  that  Book  of  ancient  date 
Shall  be  opened,  whereon  wait 
Mighty  iflues  big  with   fate  ; 


3c 


t 

DIES    IRJE. 

And  each  secret  thing  fhall  lie 
Thenceforth  bare  to  every  eye, 
Nought   unpunifhed  or  pafled   by. 

Ah,   me  !   what  fhall   I   then   plead, 
Who  for  me  then   intercede, 
When  the  juft  of  help  have  need  ? 

Thou,  who  dofl,  O   Heavenly  King, 
Free  forgiveness  freely  bring, 
Let  me  drink  of  Mercy's   Spring  ! 

Thou  didfl  empty   and  exhauft 
Heaven  for  me  :   when  such  the  coft, 
Jesus,  let  me  not  be  loft! 


Wearily  Thou   soughteft  me, 
Bouo-ht'il  me  on   th'   accursed 

o 

Let  it  not  all   fruitless  be  ! 


Righteous  Judge,   who  wilt   repay, 
Grant  me   pardon,   ere    that  day 
Of  decifion  and   dismay  ! 


DIES    IRJE.  31 

I,  a  finful   man  and  base, 
Blufhing,  groaning  o'er  my  case, 
Seek  and  supplicate   Thy  grace. 

Thou,  who  heardeft  Mary's  fighs, 
Thou,  who  openedft  Paradise 
To  the  Thief,  regard  my  cries  ! 

Worthless  are  my  prayers  and  worse, 
But,  good  Lord,  be  not  adverse, 
Left  I  fink  beneath  the  curse  ! 

Set  me,  when  at  Thy  command 

All  mankind  divided  ftand, 

With  the  fheep  at  Thy  right  hand  ! 

When  th'  insufferable  doom 
Shall  the  reprobate  consume, 
With  Thy  chosen  give  me  room  ! 

In  the  solemn  hour  of  death, 
When  the  earthly  vanifheth, 
O,  receive   my  parting  breath ! 


32 


DIES    IR^E. 


Ah !  that  day  made   up  of  tears, 

When  from  afhes   reappears 

Th'  Adam  of  fix  thousand  years, — 

Who,  by  its  red  glare  and  gleam, 
Sees,  as  in  an  awful  dream, 
Juftice  lift  her  trembling  beam, — 

Conscious  on  that  hinge  of  fate 
All  things  hang  and  hefitate  : 
Spare  then,  Lord,  if  not  too  late! 


VIII. 

THAT  dreadful  day,  my  soul ! 
Which  the  ages  fhall  unroll, 
When  the    knell    of  Time    fhall 
toll! 


O,  the  terror  and  the  fhame, 
When  the  Judge  with  eyes  of  flame 
Shall  make  piercing  search  of  blame! 

Suddenly  the  Trumpet's  fhock 
Doors  of  Hades  fhall  unlock, 
And  before   Him  all  fhall  flock. 

Struck  with  wonder  and  dismay, 
Death  and  Nature  fhall  obey 
Summons  to  give  up  their  prey. 

Loudly  each  indictment  dread 
Shall  in  every   ear  be  read 
Of  the  living  and  the  dead. 
5 


34 


DIES    IRJE. 

Every   idle   word  and   thought, 
Every  work  in  secret  wrought, 
Into  Judgment  fhall   be  brought. 

Scarce  the  juft  man's  case  is  sure, 
Scarce  the  heavens  themselves  are  pure 
Ah  !   how  then  fhall  I   endure  ? 

Dreadful   Potentate  and   high, 

Who  doft  freely  juftify, 

Fount  of  Grace,   my  need  supply! 

Jefus,  mind  the  kind  intent 
Of  Thy  weary  banifhment, 
And  my  ruin  then  prevent ! 

Let  Thy  paffion  and  Thy  pain, 
All  Thou  sufferedft  me  to  gain, 
Be  not  barren  and  in   vain  ! 

Righteous  Arbiter  of  fate  ! 

Life  and  death  upon  Thee  wait, 

Pardon,  ere  it  be  too  late  ! 


DIES    IRJE.  35 

Spare  me,  vileft  of  the  race, 
Guilty,  infamous  and  base, 
Blufhing  mendicant  of  grace  ! 

Though  of  Tinners  I   be  chief, 

Hear  me,  Thou  who  heard'ft  the  Thief, 

Driedft  the   fount  of  Mary's  grief! 

All   my   prayers   are  guilty  breath, 
And  the  beft  nought  meriteth  : 
But  in  mercy  save  from  death  ! 

When,  disposed  on  either  hand, 
All  mankind  before  Thee  ftand, 
Set  me  with  Thy  chosen  band  ! 

When,   O,  terrible  to   tell ! 

Yawns  inevitable    Hell, 

With  the  bleffed  bid  me  dwell ! 

When  I  reach  the  awful  goal, 
And  Death's  billows  o'er  me  roll, 
Care  for  my  undying  soul ! 


3& 


DIES    IRJE. 


Day  of  weeping  and   surprise, 
Opening  tombs   and  opening  eyes, 
Rocking  earth  and  burning  fkies  ! 

Day  of  universal  dread, 

When   the  quick  and  quickened   dead 

Shall  have  solemn  sentence  said  ! 

Then,   O,  then,  when  in  despair, 
Man  fhall  speak  or  fhriek  the   prayer, 
"  Spare  me  !  "   God  of  Aiercy,  spare  ! 


IX. 

£  AY  foretold,  that  day  of  ire, 
)    Burden  erft  of  David's  lyre, 
?    When    the  world  fhall  fink  in 
®  fire  ! 

O,  what  horror  and  amaze, 
When  at  once  on  mortal  gaze 
All  the  Judge's  pomp  mail  blaze! 

When  the  Trumpet's  myftic  blaft, 
To  the  world's  four  corners  cart, 
Disentombs  the  buried   Paft  ; 

And  from  all  the  heaving  sod, 
From  each  foot  of  trampled  clod, 
Starts  a  multitude  to  God  ; 

And  that  Volume  is  unrolled 
Wherein  are  minutely  told 
All  men's  doings   from  of  old  ; 


38  DIES    IR^E. 

While,  from  what  is  there  contained, 
Shall  be  judged  a  world  arraigned, 
And  eternal  fates  ordained  : 

What  defence  can  I  then   make, 

To  what  Patron  me  betake, 

When   the   righteous   fear  and  quake  ? 

King,  who  don:  all  power  pofTess, 
Free  Thy  grace  and  limitless, 
Save  me,  Fount  of  BlefTedness  ! 

Jefus,  Matter,  Thou  doft  know 
I  Thy  miffion  caused  below, 
All  Thy  weariness  and  woe  ! 

Let  Thy  blood,  that  drenched  the  hilt 
Of  that  sword   unfheathed  for  guilt, 
Be  not  vainly  fried  and  spilt  ! 

O   my  Judge,   forgive,   forget ! 
Cancel  my  tremendous  debt, 
Ere  the  sun  of  grace  fhall  set  ! 


DIES    IRiE.  30 

Filled   with   fhame  I   hang   my   head, 
Blufhes  deep  my  face  o'erspread  : 
Stay  Thy  lightnings  fierce  and  red  ! 

Thou  canft  darken1  ftains  efface  ; 
Haft   made  monuments  of  grace 
Of  the  vileft  of  the  race. 

My  poor  prayers  please  not  repel  ! 
Grace  and  goodness  with  Thee  dwell  : 
Snatch  me  from  the  flames  of  Hell ! 

When  Thou  fhalt  discriminate, 
Sheep  from  goats  fhalt  separate, 
Let  me  on  Thy  right  hand  wait  ! 

When  Thy  sentence,  smiting  dumb, 
Down  to   Hell  fhall    banifh  some, 
With  the  blefled  bid   me  come ! 

To  Thy  care,  O   Kind  as  Juft  ! 
Heart  all  penitential  duft, 
I   my  end  commit  and  trufr. ! 


4-0 


DIES    IRiE. 


Floods  of  tears  that  day  fhall  pour ; 
Man  fhall  wake  to  fleep  no  more  ; 
Guilty,  horribly  afraid  : 
Spare  him,  Lord,  whom  Thou  haft  made  ! 


J 


X. 


yW^^RSS  O  !    it  comes,  with  ftealthy  feet, 
^v£y|))    Day,   the    ages   fhall   complete, 
2^wv'    When  the  world  fhall  melt  with 


heat! 

O,  what  trembling  fhall  there  be, 
When  all  eyes  the  Judge  fhall  see, 
Come  to  fift  iniquity  ! 

Trump  fhall  syllable  command, 
And  the  dead  of  sea  and  land 
All  before  the  Throne  fhall  ftand. 

Death  fhall  fhudder,  Nature  too, 
When  the  creature  lives  anew, 
Called  to  render  answer  true. 

Volume,  that  omitteth  nought 
Man  e'er  said  or  did  or  thought, 
Shall  for  sentence  then  be  brought. 
6 


4-2  DIES    IRJE. 

When  fhall  fit  the  Judge  severe, 
All  that's  dark  fhall  be   made  clear, 
Nothing  unavenged  appear. 

What,  alas !  fhall   I   then   say, 

To  what  Interceffor  pray, 

When  the  juft  fhrinlc  with  dismay? 

Awful  King,  fince  all  is  free, 
Without  merit,   without  fee, 
Fount  of  Mercy,  save  Thou  me  ! 

Mind,  O  Jesus,  Friend  fincere, 
How  I  caused  Thy  advent  here, 
Nor  me  lose  who  coft  so  dear  ! 

Straying,  I  by  Thee  was  sought, 
On  the  cross  with  blood  was  bought 
Let  it  not  be  all  for  nought  ! 

Righteous  Judge!  Avenging  Lord! 
Full  remiflion   me  afford, 
Ere  that  final  day's  award  ! 


DIES    IRiE.  43 

Groan  I,  like  a  culprit  base, 
Conscious  guilt  inflames  my  face  : 
Spare  the  suppliant,  God  of  Grace  ! 

Thou,  who  erft  didft  Mary  clear, 
And  the  dying  Thief   didft  hear, 
Hope   haft  given   me   to  cheer. 

Though   my  prayers  create  no  claim, 
Be  propitious,  Lord,  the  same, 
Left  I   burn   in  endless  flame! 

Place  among  Thy  fheep  provide, 
From  the  goats  me  sunder  wide, 
Standing  safe  at  Thy  right  fide  ! 

While  "  Depart !  "   to  foes  addrefTed 

Banifheth  to  woes  unguefTed, 

Call  me  near  Thee  with  the  blefTed! 

Contrite  pangs   my  bosom  tear, 
Heart  as  afhes  :   hear  my  prayer, 
Let  my   end  be  not  despair! 


44 


DIES    IR^E. 


On  that  day  of  grief  and  dread, 
When  man,  rifing  from  the  dead, 
Shall  eternal  juftice  face, 
Spare  the  finner,  God  of  Grace  . 


XI. 


AY  of  wrath,  that  day  of  dole, 
)    When  a  fire  fhall  wrap  the  whole, 
J$>    And  the  earth  be  burnt  to  coal  ! 

sss 

O,  what  horror,  smiting  dumb 
When  the  Judge  of  all  fhall  come, 
Sinful  deeds  to  search  and  sum! 

Trump's  reverberating  roar 
Through  the  sepulchres  mall  pour, 
Citing  all  the  Throne  before. 

Death  and  Nature  ftand  aghaft, 
While  the  dead  in  numbers  vaft 
Rise  to  answer  for  the  pad. 

Volume,  writ  by  God's  own  pen, 

Chronicling  the  deeds  of  men, 

Shall  be  brought,  and  dooms  be  then. 


4-6  DIES    lR^E. 

When  the  Judge  fhall  sit,  behold! 
What  is  secret   He'll  unfold, 
No  juft  punifhment  withhold. 

Ah  !  what  plea  fhall  I  prepare, 
To  what  Patron   make   my   prayer, 
When  the  juft  well-nigh  despair  ? 

King,   majeftic  beyond   thought, 
Whose   free  grace  cannot  be  bought, 
Save  me,  whose  desert  is  nought! 

O,  remember,  Jefus,  I 

Was  the  cause  and   reason  why 

Thou  didft  come  on  earth  to  die  ! 

Me  Thou  sought'ft  with   weary  feet, 
And  my  ransom  didft  complete  : 
Let  such  pity  nought  defeat ! 

Judge,  inflexible  and  ftricl:, 
Pardon,  ere  that  day  convict 
And   th'   unchanging  doom   inflict  ! 


DIES    IR^E.  47 

Like  a  criminal   I   sigh, 
Blufhing,  penitently  cry  : 
Pass,  Lord,  my  offences  by  ! 

Thou,  who  Mary  erft  did'ft  bless, 
Heard'ft  the  Thief  in  his  diftress, 
Hope  haft  given   me  no  less. 

Worthless  are   my  prayers  and   vain, 
But  in  love  do  not  disdain, 
Left  I  reap  eternal  pain  ! 

On  Thy  right  hand  grant  me  place 
'Mid  the  fheep,  a  chosen  race, — 
Far  from  goats  devoid  of  grace ! 

When  the  thunder  of  Thine   ire 
Headlong  hurls   to  quenchless   fire, 
Let  Thy  welcome   me  inspire  ! 

I   entreat  Thee,  bending  low, 
Heart  as  afhes,  full  of  woe, 
Succor  in  my  end  beftow ! 


48 


DIES    IRJE. 


When  upon  that  day  of  tears 
Man  from  dun:  again  appears, 
Fate  depending  on  Thy  nod  : 
Spare  the   linner  then,   O   God  ! 


XII. 


£    DAY   of  wrath  !    O   day  of  fate! 
p    Day  foreordained  and   ultimate, 
When    all    things    here    (hall    termi 


nate 


What  numbers   horribly  afraid, 

When  comes  the  Judge,   in   fear  arrayed, 

To  try  the  creatures   He   hath   made  ! 

The  blare  uf  Trumpet,  pealing  clear, 

Shall  through  the  sepulchres  career, 

And   wake  the  dead,  and  bring  them   near. 

Aftonifhed   Nature  then  fhall  quail, 
What  time  the  yawning  graves   unveil, 
And   man  comes   forth,  amazed   and  pale, 

To  answer  :      The  o'erwritten  scroll 
Shall  charge  and   certify  the  whole, 
Whence  fhall  be  judged  each   human   soul. 

7 


5C  DIES    1RJE. 

The  Judge  enthroned   (hall  bring  to  light 
Whate'er  is  hid,  in  open  fight 
Avenge  and  vindicate  the  right. 

Ah  !   with  what  plea  fhall   I   then  come, 
When,  terror-locked,  each  sense  is  numb, 
And  even  righteous  lips  are  dumb  ? 

O   King  immortal  and  supreme, 

Whose  fear  is  great,  whose  grace  extreme, 

Make   me  to  drink  of  Mercy's   ftream  ! 

Remember,  Jefus,   Thou  didft   make 
Thyself  incarnate   for  my  sake, 
Left   Hell  insatiate  claim  and  take  ! 

Thou  soughteft  me  when  far  aftray, 
Didft  on  the  cross  my  ransom  pay  : 
Let  not  such  love  be  thrown  away  ! 

Juft  Judge,  of  purity  intense, 
Remit  my  infinite  offence, 
Before  that  day  of  recompense  ! 


DIES    IRJE.  51 

Like  one  convinced  of  heinous  deed, 
I  groan,   I   weep,  I  blum,  I  plead  : 
Lord,  spare  me  in   that  hour  of  need  ! 

Thou,  who  wert  moved  by  Mary's   tears, 
Absolved  the   Robber  from  his   fears, 
Haft  given  me  hope  in   former  years. 

My  prayers  are  worthless   well  I   know  ; 
But,  good,  do  Thou  Thy  goodness  mow, 
And  save  me  from   impending  woe  ! 

Number  and  place   me   'mong  Thy  own, 
Beneath  the  fhelter  of  Thy  Throne, 
Until  Thy  wrath  be  overblown! 

When  that  the  almighty  word   fhall  leap 
From  out  Thy  Throne,   Thy  foes  to  sweep, 
My  soul  in  perfect  safety  keep  ! 

In  proftrate   worfhip,  I   implore, 
With  heart  all  penitent  and  sore  : 
Then  care   for  me  when  life  is  o'er ! 


DIES     IR^E. 


Ah  !  on   that  day  of  grief  and   dread, 

And  resurrection  of  the  dead, 

Of  trial  and  of  juft  award, 

In   wrath   remember  mercy,   Lord  ! 


XIII. 

HAT  day,  that  awful  day,  the  laft, 
Result  and  sum  of  all  the   Paft, 
Great  neceffary  day  of  doom, 
When  wrecking    fires  fhall    all   con- 
sume ! 


What  dreadful  fhrieks  the  air  fhall  rend, 
When  all  fhall  see  the  Judge  descend, 
And   hear  th'   Archangel's  echoing  fhout 
From   heavenly  spaces  ringing  out  ! 

The  Trump  of  God   with  quickening  breath 
Shall  pierce  the  filent  realms  of  Death, 
And   sound   the  summons  in  each  ear  : 
"  Arise  !  thy  Maker  calls  !   Appear  !  " 

From  eaft  to  weft,   from   south   to  north, 
The  earth  fhall  travail  and  bring  forth  ; 


54  DIES    1RJE. 

As  desert's  sands  and  ocean's  waves 
Shall  be  the  sum  of  empty  graves. 

Th'  unchanging  Record  of  the  Pail: 
Shall  then  be  read  from  firft  to  laft  ; 
And  out  of  things  therein  contained, 
Shall  all  be  judged  and  fates  ordained. 

No  lying  tongue,  that  truth  diftorts, 
Shall  witness  in  that  Court  of  Courts  , 
Each  secret  thing  fhall  be  revealed, 
And  every  righteous  sentence  sealed. 

Ah !  who  can   (land  when  He  appears  ? 
Confront  the  guilt  of  finful  years  ? 
What  hope  for  me,  a  wretch  depraved, 
When   scarce  the  righteous   man   is   saved  ? 

Dread  Monarch  of  the  Earth   and    Heaven! 
For  that  salvation's  great  'tis  given  ; 
And   fince  the  boon   is  wholly  free, 
O   Fount  of  Pity,  save  Thou  me  ! 


DIES    IR^E.  55 

Remember,  Jefus,   how   my  case 
Once   moved  Thy  pity  and  Thy  grace, 
And   brought  Thee  down  on   earth   to  flay  : 
O,   lose   me  not,  then,  on  that  day! 

I   seek   Thee,  who  didft  seek  me   firft, 
Weary  and   hungry  and  athirft ; 
Didft  pay   my  ransom  on  the  tree  : 
Let  not  such  travail  fruftrate  be  ! 

Juft  Judge  of  vengeance  in   the  end, 
Now  in  the  accepted  time  befriend ! 
My  fins,   O,  gracioufly  remit, 
Ere  Thou  judicially  fhalt  fit! 

Low  at  Thy  feet  I  groaning  lie  ; 
With   blufhing  cheek,  and  weeping  eye, 
And   ftammering  lips,  I   urge  the  prayer : 
O  spare  me,   God  of  Mercy,  spare  ! 

When  Mary  Thy  forgiveness  sought, 
Wept,  but  articulated  nought, 


56  DIES    IRiE. 

Thou  didfl:  forgive  ;   didft   hear   the  brief 
Petition  of  the  dying  Thief. 

On  grace  thus  great  my  hope  is  built 
That  Thou   wilt  cancel,   too,    my  guilt ; 
That,  though   my  prayers   are   worthless  breath, 
Thou  wilt  deliver   me   from   death. 

When  Thy  dividing  rod  of  might 
Appointeth   ftations  oppofite, 
Among  Thy  fheep  grant  me  to   ftand, 
Far  from  the  goats,  at  Thy  right  hand ! 

And  when  despair  mail  seize  each   heart 
That  hears   the  dreadful  sound,   "Depart!" 
Be   mine,  the  heavenly  lot  of  some, 
To  hear  that  word  of  welcome,  "  Come  !  " 

I   come  to  Thee  with   trembling  truft, 
And  lay   my  forehead   in  the  duft  ; 
In  my  lafl   hour  do  Thou  befriend, 
And  glorify  Thee  in  my  end! 


APPENDIX.— SEQUENCE. 


STATEMENT  of  the  order  observed 
in  the  celebration  of  Mass  will  beft  ex- 
$  plain  the  nature  and  import  of  this  term, 
3  in  its  application  by  the  Romifh  Church 
to  a  large  body  of  hymns, — Daniel,  in  the  5th  vol- 
ume of  his  learned  and  laborious  work,  t(  Thesaurus 
Hymnologicus,"  citing  no  less  than  eight  hundred, 
the  laft  one  given  being  a  new  Sequence,  composed 
in  honor  of  the  Virgin  in  1855,  "  Sequentia  de  Beata 
Maria  Virgine  fine  Labe  Concepta,  Virgo  Virginum 
Praeclara." 

The  dispofition  of  parts  in  the  Mass  is  as  follows, 
viz.  :  1.  The  Introit,  which  is  the  part  sung  or 
chanted  when  the  prieft  enters  within  the  rails  of  the 
altar.  2.  The  Collect,  or  Prayer.  3.  Reading 
of  the  Epistle,  being,  in  the  Mass  for  the  Dead, 
1  Cor.  xv.  51-57,  or  Rev.  xiv.  13.  4.  The  Grad- 
jal,  so  called  from  its  having  been  sung  or  chanted 
8 


58  SEQUENCE. 

formerly  from  the  fteps  (gracilis)  of  the  altar,  clofing 
with  the  Alleluia.  5.  The  Tract,  which  is 
omitted  when  the  Alleluia  is  sung;  otherwise  it  is 
sung  in  the  interval  to  prepare  for  the  following. 
The  primary  meaning  of  the  word  (from  traho,  to 
protract  or  draw  out)  is  adapted  to  suggeft  either  the 
use  here  indicated,  i.  e.  to  fill  up  time,  or  else  to  ex- 
press the  flow,  mournful  movement  which  character- 
izes the  chant.  6.  The  Sequence,  being,  in  the 
Mass  for  the  Dead,  the  Dies  Ir^e.  7.  Reading 
of  the  Gospel,  being,  in  the  Mass  for  the  Dead, 
John  v.  25-29.  8.  The  Offertory,  which  is  a 
fhort  sentence  that  varies.  9.  The  Secret,  a  brief 
prayer  recited  by  the  prieft  in  a  very  low  tone  of 
voice.      10.   Communion,  or  the  application  of  the 

MaSS.        II.     POST-COMMUNION. 

The  Sequence,  it  will  be  seen,  occupies  a  pofition 
exactly  midway,  being  juft  after  the  Gradual  and 
Tract,  and  immediately  before  the  Gospel.  The 
Reading  of  the  Gospel  happening  to  be  introduced  by 
the  words,  "  Sequentia  Sancti  Evangelii  secundum 
,"  (The  Continuation  of  the  Holy  Gospel  ac- 
cording to ,)  some  have  supposed   that  the  term 

Sequentia  or  Sequence  was  derived  from  this  source. 
Michael   Praetorius  was   of   this   opinion.       But    the 


SEQUENCE.  59 

mofl  approved  authorities  give  the  following  explana- 
tion of  its  origin. 

From  an  early  period,  it  was  the  cuftorn  of  the 
Latin  Church  to  fing  the  Gradual  with  the  Alleluia 
between  the  Epiftle  and  the  Gospel  ;  the  Gradual 
being  completed,  the  Alleluia  followed  ;  and  in  order 
to  give  to  the  officiating  prieft  or  deacon  sufficient 
time  to  prepare  and  ascend  the  ambon  or  pulpit,  the 
choir  repeated  and  continued  the  laft  syllable  A 
through  a  series  of  notes.  This  nemna,  as  it  was 
called,  or  mufical  prolongation  of  a  letter,  was  named 
Sequentia,  because  it  was  sequent  to  and  governed 
by  the  melody  and  rhythm  of  the  Alleluia.  At  a 
later  period,  this  paflage  of  notes  sung  without  text, 
confrituting  the  original  form  of  the  Sequence,  came 
to  have  words  set  thereto,  thereby  preparing  the 
way  for  other  changes  ;  and  forasmuch  as  the  firft 
eflays  of  this  kind  were  unmetrical  in  their  ftrudture, 
the  term  Prosa  or  Prose  was  applied  by  way  of  dis- 
tinction to  this  species  of  compofition  ;  of  which 
Notlcer,  surnamed  the  Stammerer,  (Balbulus,)  who 
died  in  912,  canonized  in  15 14,  is  confidered  to  have 
been  the  originator.  Gradually,  rhyme,  so  much 
and  so  fondly  cultivated  in  the  Middle  Ages,  found 
its  way  into  these  also  ;   and  from  the  twelfth  century 


60  SEQUENCE. 

onward,  Sequences  became  proper  metrical  songs, 
differing  from  other  hymns  only  in  this,  that  the 
ftrophes,  inftead  of  four,  were  made  to  consist  of 
three  or  fix  lines,  according  as  they  were  double 
or  Tingle.  To  this  rule,  however,  there  were  some 
exceptions.  The  name  of  Prose,  although  not 
ftrictly  proper  in  its  application  to  metrical  composi- 
tions, continued  to  be  used,  nevertheless,  as  a  general 
title  for  all  Sequences  ;  and  so  we  find  the  Dies  Irae 
bearing  the  appellation  in  the  Mass-books  of  "  Prosa 
Ecclefiaftica  de  Alortuis." 

Defigned  in  the  firft  inftance,  as  alleged  by  Notker, 
meiely  to  affift  the  memory  in  retaining  the  long- 
drawn,  caudal  melodies  of  the  Alleluia,  the  desirable- 
ness of  having  other  songs  for  the  Mass  than  the 
Gloria  in  Excelfis,  Kyrie,  Credo,  &c,  songs  eafier 
in  ftructure,  which  could  be  joined  in,  not  only  by 
the  choir,  but  also  by  the  congregation, — perhaps, 
too,  the  wifh  to  introduce  greater  variety  into  the 
service,  and  bring  the  finging  into  closer  relation 
with  the  objects  of  particular  Church  feftivals,  which 
could  be  done  more  readily  by  these  Sequences,— 
caused  them  to  be  multiplied  greatly. 

But  the  Roman  ritual  finally  limited  them  to  four, 
viz.  :   Victims  paschali  laudis,  S.  for  Eafter   Sunday  ; 


SEQUENCE.  6l 

Vent  Sancte  Spiritus^  S.  for  Whitsunday  and  St 
Peter's  Day  ;  Lauda  Sion  Salvatorem,  S.  for  Solem- 
nity of  Corpus  Chrifti  ;  and  Dies  Ira^  S.  Mass  for 
the  Dead  and  All-Souls'  Day  ;  nevertheless,  other 
Mass-books  of  diocefes  and  monaftic  orders  con- 
tain more  Sequences.  The  Sequence  firft  named 
has  a  different  metre  from  the  other  three,  being  one 
of  those  rare  cafes  in  which  the  chara&eriftic  triplet 
form  of  the  ftrophe  is  departed  from.  The  second 
named,  Veni  San&e  Spiritus,  which  Trench  speaks 
of  as  "  the  lovelieft,  though  not  the  grandeft,  of 
all  the  hymns  in  the  whole  circle  of  Latin  sacred 
poetry,"  contains  ten  ftrophes  of  three  lines  each. 
Its  author  was  Robert  the  Second,  son  of  Hugh 
Capet,  who  ascended  the  throne  of  France  in  the 
year  997,  and  died  in  1031.  Like  Henry  the  Sixth 
of  England,  of  a  meek  and  gentle  dispofition,  a  lov- 
er of  peace,  he  was  ill  suited  to  contend  with  the 
turbulent  and  reftless  spirits  who  surrounded  him, 
whose  delight  was  in  war.  The  next  Sequence  has 
twelve  double  ftrophes  of  fix  lines  each.  It  is  com- 
monly attributed  to  the  so-called  Angelical  Doctor, 
St.  Thomas  Aquinas.  The  laft,  which  is  the  Dies 
[RiE,  grand  and  unapproachable  in  its  excellence, 
comprises  seventeen  ftrophes  of  three  lines  each,  and 
one  of  four  lines. 


ORIGIN   OF   LATIN    RHYME. 


HILE  it  is  true  that  the  Latin  hymns 
written  during  the  firfr.  centuries  of  the 
Chriftian  era  are,  speaking  generally, 
characterized  by  the  absence  of  rhyme, 
and  that  the  prevalence  of  rhyme  belongs  peculiarly 
and  almofr.  exclufively  to  the  period  intervening 
between  the  pontificate  of  Gregory  the  Great  and 
that  of  Leo  X.,  it  would  be  a  great  error  to  suppose 
that  rhyme  was  then  firft  introduced,  or  that  it  was 
borrowed,  as  some  have  surmised,  from  the  Romance 
or  Gothic  languages.  If  we  look  for  its  origin,  we 
{hall  find  preludings  and  anticipations  of  it  in  every 
one  of  the  Latin  poets,  not  excepting  the  olden1. 
Examples  of  both  middle  and  final  rhyme  occur  in 
all.    In  the  Introduction  to  Trench's  "  Sacred  Latin 


ORIGIN    OF    LATIN    RHYME.  63 

Poetry,"  where  this  whole  subject  is  ably  discufled, 
we  have  a  collation  of  many  of  these.  Witness  the 
following.  An  ancient  author,  quoted  by  Cicero, 
(Tusc.  1.  I.  c.  28,)  poffibly  Ennius,  has  this  ■ — 

Caelum  nitescer^,  arbores  frondescere, 
Vites  ljetiticx  pampinis  pubescere, 
Rami  baccarum  ubertate  incurvescere. 

Of  middle  rhyme,  we  have  in  Ennius  :  — 
Non  cauponantes  bellum,  sed  belligerantes  ; 

In  Virgil  :  — 

I.imus  ut  hie  durescit,  et  hasc  ut  cera  liquescit ; 

In  Ovid  :  — 

Quern  mare  carpentem,  substrictaque  crura  gerentem  ; 

Where  also  is  found  this  example  of  leonine  pen- 
tameter :  — 

Quserebant  flavos  per  nemus  omne  favos. 

Of  final  rhyme,  we  have,  in  Virgil  :  — 

Nee  non  Tarquinium  ejectum  Porsenna  jubebat 
Accipere,  ingentique  urbem  obsidione  premebat ; 

41so:  — 

Omnis  campis  diffugit  arator, 
Omnis  et  agricola,  et  tuta  latet  arce  viator ; 


54 


ORIGIN    OF    LATIN    RHYME. 


In  Horace  : 


Non  satis  est  pulcra  esse  poemata ;  dulcia  sunto, 
Et  quocumque  volent,  animum  auditoris  agunto ; 

Also  .    - 

Multa  recedentes  adimunt.      Ne  forte  seniles 
Mandentur  juveni  partes,  pueroque  viriles. 

Lucan  abounds  in  examples.  Even  the  Latin  prose- 
writers,  it  would  seem,  did  not  disdain  now  and  then 
to  play  at  rhyme,  bv  putting  rhyming  words  in  jux- 
tapofition.  Cicero  has  fiore?n  et  colorem  ;  Pliny,  ve- 
ra?}! et  meram  ;  Pkiutus,  melle  et  feile  ;  and  so  others. 
Rhyme  being  thus  shown  to  have  been  a  thing 
known  to  the  language  from  the  earlieft  times,  it 
may  be  thought  surprifing,  that  what  at  a  later 
period  was  so  highly  prized,  and  so  fondly  and  so 
laboriously  cultivated,  should  have  been,  during  so 
many  centuries,  to  such  an  extent,  neglected  ;  having 
been  apparently  fhunned  rather  than  sought  for,  par- 
ticularly by  those  great  matters  of  poetry  who  illus- 
trated the  Auguftan  age.  The  fact,  is,  that  the 
ancient  clalTic  metres,  though  found  occafionally,  as 
we  have  seen,  toying  with   rhyme,  never  seriously 


ORIGIN    OF    LATIN    RHYME. 


65 


affected  it ;  and  it  was  not  until  the  fhackles  imposed 
by  these  had  been  wholly  fhaken  off,  and  a  fimpler 
and  more  natural  verification,  based  upon  accent 
inftead  of  quantity,  had  succeeded  in  eftablifhing  its 
juffc  claims  over  the  Greek  intruder,  that  the  regime 
of  rhyme  fairly  commenced. 


(Srcpriait  (pant. 


From  the  "  Graduale  Roraanum." 


jf^s^^: 


E± 


mmm 


^^^  r  I      p  n^  u  i — r^^1 — — r 

1.  Di  -  es       i  -  rag,  di  -  es        il  -  la      Sol  -  vet    sse-chuu 

2.  Quantus    tre-mor  est    fu    -    tu  -  rus,  Quan-do    Ju-dex 

7.  Quod  sum  mi  -  set-  time  die  -   tu  -  rus,  Quem  pa  -  tro-naun 

8.  Ilex  tie  -  men-da3  ma  •  jes  -    ta  -  tis,     Qui    sal  -  van-dos 

13.  Qui    Ma  -  ri  -  am  ab  -  sol  -  vis  -  ti.        Et      la  -  tro-nem 

14.  Fiae-ces    me  -  aa  nou   sunt   dig-naa,   Seel    tu     bo-nus 


£=MZ 


££ 


»  :f- 


in 

ta  - 

vil  -  'a.. 

est 

ven 

- tu-rus 

ro 

pa 

tu-rus 

sal- 

vas 

gratis. 

ex 

-  au- 

dis-  ti, 

fac 

be 

■nig-ne 

r^f 


H» i » ^ tZ 


Tes-te    Da- vid  cum  Si -byl-la.      3.  Tu  -  ba    mi-rum 
Cuncta  stric-te    dis- cus- su-rus.     4.  Mors  stu-pe-bit 

Cum   vix  Justus  sit     se-CU-rus?    9.  Re  -cor- da  -  re 
Sal-va  me,  funs  pi  -  e  -  ta  -  tis  !    10.  Quaarens  me  se- 
Mi  -  hi    quo-que  spem  de-dis-ti.      15.  In  -  ter     o  -  ves 

Ne   per-en-ni    cre-mer   ig-ne.    16.  Con-fu  -  ta  -  tis 


^H^ilpi: 


m 


T3-T    |      , 

Bpargens  so-num  Per  se-pul-chra  re-gi-  o-num,  Co-get  om-nes 
et  na  -  tu  -  ra,  Cum  re-sur-get  ere  -  a  -  tu  -  ra,  Ju  -  di  -  can  -  ti 
Je  -  su  i>i  -  e.  Quod  sum  cau-sa  tu  -  aa  vi  -  se,  NFe  me  per-daa 
dis  -  ti  las  -  sus  Re  -  de  -  mis-  ti  cru-cem  pas-sus  :  Tan-tus  la  -  bor 
lo-cum  praa-sta,  Et  ab  hu-dis  me  se-questra.  Sta  -  tu  -  ens  in 
ma  -  le  -  die  -  tis,    Flammia  a  -  cri  -  bus  ad  -  die-  tis,    Vo  -  ca   me  cum 


s=f=fS-!rr-Jr^iK^ 


an  -  te  throuum.  5.  Li  -  ber  scriptus  pro-fe  -  re  -  tur,  In  quo  totir.n 
re-spon-su  -  ra.  6.  Ju  -  dex  er-  go  cum  se- de  -  bit,  Quidquid  latet 
il  -  la.  di  -  e  !  11.  Jus  -  te  Jn  -  dex  ul  -  ti  -  o  -  nis,  Donnm  fac  re  - 
not  sit   cassus  !    12.  In     ge  -  mis-co  tanquam  re  -  us,  Cul-pa   ru-bet 

par-te  dex-tra!  17.  0  -  ro  sup-plex  et  ac  -  cli  -  nis,  Cor  contritum 
be  -  ne-  dic-tis  ' 


^paip^^g^p^^] 


con-ti    -    ne-tur,  Un-de  mundus  ju- 
ap  -  pa  -    re  -  bit,  Nil  in  -  ul  -  turn  re  -  ma- 
mis -si    -    o-nisAn-te    di    em    ra-ti 
vul-tus      me-us :  Suppli-can-ti      par-ce, 
qua- si       ci-nis:Ge-re   cu-ram   me  -  i 


o  -  nis. 
De  -  us 


La-chry-mo- 


^p=p-r-pi7^i-;=&^^^^ 


i     I     T~^: 


di  -  es      il  -    la   Qua   re-sur-get     ex    fa-vil-la,    Ju  -  di  -  can-dus 


m^^mm^m^m 


i — r 

ho  -    mo      re  -   us  :    Hu  -   ic       er      go      par  -  ce,      De  -  us  ' 


DIES   IR.E   PARODIED. 


ILLIAM  HENRY  NASSAU,  Prince 
of  Orange  —  son  of  William  II.,  Prince 
of"  Orange,  by  the  Princefs  Mary,  eldeft 
daughter  of  Charles  I.  —  was  called  to 
the  throne  of  England  in  1689,  in  conjunction  with 
his  wife,  Mary,  eldeft  daughter  of  the  deposed  James 
II.,  James  having  fled  to  France,  and  with  his  family 
become  penfioners  of  Louis  XIV.,  who  in  1692  made 
a  vigorous  attempt  to  effecl:  his  reftoration.  A  treaty 
formed  in  1699,  providing  for  the  settlement  of  the 
succeflion  to  the  throne  of  the  Spanifh  empire  on 
the  extinction  of  the  eldeft  branch  of  the  house  of 
Auftria,  was  violated  by  Louis  XIV.  in  accepting 
the  Spanifh  throne  for  his  grandson,  the  Duke  of 
Anjou,  who  thus  became  Philip  V.  of  Spain.  In 
addition  to  this,  on  the  death  of  James  II.  he  gave  a 


JO  DIES    IR^E    PARODIED. 

further  affront  by  acknowledging  his  son  James  king 
of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 

From  the  union  of  the  French  and  Spanifh  crowns 
in  the  Bourbon  family,  and  the  anticipated  reftora- 
tion  of  James  II.  and  his  son,  the  Pretender,  to  the 
throne  of  England,  a  certain  Catholic  prieit,  it  would 
seem,  thought  himself  warranted  in  predicting  the 
speedy  downfall  of  Proteftant  Holland,  the  conver- 
fion  of  England,  and  the  overthrow  of  Lutheranism 
and  Calvinism  throughout  Europe  —  not  scrupling 
with  profane  audacity  to  travefty  the  celebrated  Latin 
Judgment  Hymn,  the  Dies  Irae,  in  the  ventilation 
of  his  malignant  vaticinations.  The  following 
"  Nenia  Batavorum  "  or  Dutchman's  Ditty,  is  fur- 
nifhed  by  the  great  scholar  Leibnitz,  written,  it  is 
said,  in  the  year  1700. 

The  (kill  and  dexterity  fhown  by  the  parodift  in 
his  manipulation  of  the  original  text  are  undeniable  ; 
but  whatever  may  be  thought  of  him  as  a  poet,  sub- 
sequent events  have  made  it  certain  that  he  was  no 
prophet  ;  while  the  licentious  irreverence  amounting 
to  blasphemy,  which  leads  him  to  put  the  "  Grand 
Monarque "    in    the    place    of  Chrilt    the    Judge,   is 


DIES    lR^E    PARODIED.  /I 

quite  (hocking  to  all  right  feeling  and  good  taitc. 
Still,  as  one  of  the  Curiofities  of  Literature,  it  pos- 
sefTes  much  intereft.  It  is  for  this  reason,  and  be- 
cause it  poflefTes  a  hiftorical  value,  that  we  give  it 
here. 

Dies  irae,  dies  ilia, 

Solvet  fcedus*  in  favilla, 

Teste  Tago,  Scaldi,  Scylla. 

That  day  of  wrath,  how  it  fhall  burn 
And  fhall  the  league  to  afhes  turn, 
From  Tagus,  Scheldt,  and  Scylla  learn. 

Quantus  tremor  eft  futurus 

Dum  Phillippus  eft  venturus 

Has  Paludes  aggreflurus  ! 

What  trembling  multitudes  afraid, 
While  Philip  fhall  the  land  invade, 
And  through  the  marfhes  march  and  wade  ! 

Tuba  mirum  spargens  sonum 

Per  unita  regionum 

Coget  omnes  ante  thronum. 

*  The  league  between  England  and  Holland. 


72  DIES    1RJE    PARODIED. 

The  blare  of  trumpet  making  known 
Through  the  united  countries  blown 
Shall  bring  them  all  before  the  throne. 

Mars  ftupebit  et  Bellona 

Dum  rex  dicit  :    Redde  bona 

Poft  hoc  vives  sub  corona. 

Mars  and  Bellona  dumb  fhall  (land 
What  time  the  kino-  {hall  give  command 
"Yield  to  my  sceptre,  self  and  land." 

Miles  scriptus  adducetur, 

Cum  quo  Gallus  unietur 

Uncle  leo  subjugetur. 

His  levied  hoits  he  forth  {hall  call, 
And  joined  to  these  {hall  be  the  Gaul 
Therewith  the  lion  to  enthrall. 

Hie  Rex  ergo  cum  sedebit, 

Vera  fides  refulgebit, 

Nil  Calvino  remanebit. 

Then  when  this  King  {hall  fit  and  reign, 
Lo  !   the  true  faith  {hall  mine  again, 
And  nought  to  Calvin  {hall  remain. 


DIES    1RJE    PARODIED.  73 

Quid  sum  miser  tunc  dicturus, 

Quern  patronum  rogaturus, 

Cum  nee  Anglus  fit  securus  ? 

What  mall  I  say  forlorn  and  poor, 
What  Patron  sue  then  or  procure, 
When  not  the  Englishman  's  secure  ? 

Rex  invictaj  pietatis  ! 
Depreffifti  noftros*  satis, 
Si  cadendum,  cedo  fatis. 

King  of  unconquered  piety  ! 

Vexed  haft  thou  ours  sufficiently  ; 

Falling,  I  yield  to  deftiny. 

Pofthoc  colam  Romam,  pie, 

EfTe  nolo  causa  viae, 

Ne  me  perdas  ilia  die. 

Henceforth  at  Rome  my  vows  I  '11  pay, 
Will  not  be  cause  more  of  the  way, 
Left  thou  deftroy  me  on  that  day. 

*  Huguenots  of  France. 


74  DIES    1RJE    PARODIED. 

Pro  Leone  multa  partus, 

Ut  hie  ftaret*  eras  laflus 

Tantus  labor  non  fit  caflus. 

Thou  for  the  Lion  much  haft  borne, 
That  he  might  ftand  haft  been  much  worn, 
Let  not  such  toil  of  fruit  be  fhorn  ! 

Magne  Rector  liliorum,f 

Amor,  timor  populorum, 

Parce  terris  Batavorum. 

Great  Ruler  of  the  lilies,  hear  ! 
The  people's  love,  the  people's  fear, 
Spare  thou  the  Dutchmen's  lands  and  gear  ! 

Ingemisco  tanquam  reus, 

Culpa  rubet  vultus  meus  — 

Cadam,  nifi  juvat  Deus. 

Like  one  condemned,  I  make  my  plaint, 
Remembered  faults  my  visage  paint  — 
Unlefs  God  aid,  I  '11  fall  and  faint. 

*   Formerly  when  France  aided  the  Dutch. 
+  In  alluiion  1 3  fleur-de-lis,  or  the  lilies  quartered  in  the  royal 
arms  of  France. 


DIES    IRiE    PARODIED.  75 

Dum  Iberim  domuifti, 

Lufitanum  erexifti, 

Mihi  quoque  spem  dedifti. 

For  that  while  thou  haft  conquered  Spain, 

Haft  Portugal  upraised  again, 

I  too  some  hope  may  entertain. 


Preces  meae  non  sunt  dignae, 

Sed,  Rex  Magne,  fac  benigne, 

Ne  bomborum  cremur  igne. 

My  worthlefs  prayers  no  favor  earn, 
But  be,  Great  King,  benign,  not  ftern, 
Left  that  by  blazing  bombs  I  burn  ! 


Inter  tuos  locum  praefta, 
Ut  Romana  colam  fefta, 
Et  ut  tua  canam  gefta. 

Among  thy  own  me  reinftate, 
That  I  Rome's  feafts  may  venerate. 

And  thy  achievements  celebrate  ! 


76  DIES    \RJE    PARODIED. 

Confutatis  calvi  brutis,* 

Patre,f  nato,  reftitutis 

Redde  mihi  spem  salutis. 

When  quelled  the  Bald-head's  ftupid  horde, 
The  father  and  the  son  reftored, 
Then  hope  of  safety  me  afford  ! 


Oro  supplex  et  acclinis 

Calvinismus  fiat  cinis, 

Lachrymarum  ut  fit  finis. 

Do  thou,  I  humbly  supplicate, 

All  Calvinism  extirpate, 

That  so  our  tears  may  terminate. 

*   William,  Prince  of  Orange,  who  was  bald, 
t  James  II.  and  his  son,  the  Pretender. 


tdhiit  Bhter 


(DOLOROSA) 
HYMN    OF    THE    SORROWS    OF    MARY 


TRANSLATED    BY 


ABRAHAM  COLES,  M.  D.,  Ph.  D. 


SECOND    EDITION 


d*!% 


NEW    YORK 

D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY 

1868 


Entered  according  to   Act  of  Congress  in  the  year   1865,  b\ 

Abraham  Coles, 

in  the  Clerk's  office  of  the   District  Court  of  the   District  of 

New  Jersey. 


PROEM. 


HE  celebrated  Paflion  Hymn,  the  Stabat 
Mater,  is  so  conftantly  affociated  with 
the  Dies  Irae  that  to  mention  the  one  is 
to  suggeft  the  other.  It  has  been  thought, 
therefore,  that  a  Tranflation  of  this  Prosa  likewise, 
made  as  literal  as  poffible,  might  be  acceptable  to 
some  readers,  and  form  a  not  unsuitable  appendage 
to  the  former  volume,  by  supplying  a  ready  means 
of  comparison  between  two  productions,  about  which, 
down  to  this  day  even,  there  has  been  a  difference 
of  opinion  as  to  which  should  be  awarded  the  palm 
of  superiority. 

It  is  hardly  neceffarv  to  say  that  reference  is  here 
had  to  their  lyrical  merits  only  ;  for  while  the  devout 
Proteftant  finds  nothing  in  the  Judgment  Hymn  to 
jar  with  his  own  religious  convictions,  he  is  neces- 
sarily offended   in   the   Stabat  Mater  by  a  devotion  he 


4  PROEM. 

believes  misdirected  and  idolatrous,  in  the  adoration 
which  it  pays  to  the  Virgin.  He  is  aware,  however, 
that  in  the  formation  of  a  critical  eftimate  of  the  two, 
theological  confiderations  have  no  right  to  enter  ; 
and  certainly  the  molt  zealous  Romanift  will  be  con- 
tained to  admit  that  there  has  been  no  backward- 
ness evinced  on  the  part  of  those  who  are  not  of  his 
faith  to  do  ample  juftice  to  the  lyric  excellence  of 
the  latter.  Some  have  gone  so  far  as  to  place  it 
above  its  great  rival,  but  this  is  not  the  general  judg- 
ment, nor  is  it  ours. 

Beautiful  it  undoubtedly  is,  and  powerful  in  its 
pathos  beyond  almoft  anything  that  has  ever  been 
written  ;  but  it  is  nevertheless  true  (and  the  same 
indeed  may  be  said  of  the  Dies  Irae  likewise)  that  it 
owes  much  of  its  power  to  make  us  admire  and  weep 
to  the  transcendent  nature  of  its  theme.  Beyond 
controversy,  the  mod  affecting  spectacle  ever  ex- 
hibited to  the  gaze  of  the  universe,  was  that  wit- 
neffed  on  Mount  Calvary.  That  amazing  scene  — 
Jesus  on  the  cross  and  his  mother  (landing  near  — 
had  been,  of  course,  a  familiar  object:  of  contempla- 
tion   to    all   Chriftian    hearts,    centuries    before    the 


PROEM.  5 

author  wrote.  His  chief  bufiness  therefore  would 
be  not  to  originate  but  reproduce. 

Evidently  the  key-note  of  the  Hymn  is  ftruck  in 
the  two  firfr.  lines,  of  which  the  language  is  wholly 
borrowed  (bating  the  epithets,  which  are  not  in  the 
manner  of  the  sacred  writers)  from  the  Evangelift 
John,  as  found  in  the  Latin  verfion  :  Stabat  juxta 
crucem  mater  ejus.  This  brief  but  wonderfully  sug- 
geftive  sentence,  furnifhes  an  outline  which  the 
poorefl  imagination  would  be  capable  of  filling  up 
in  a  degree.  Every  mother's  heart,  for  example, 
would  suffice  to  teli  what  an  abyss  of  tears  muit 
have  gone  to  make  up  that  hiatus  in  the  narrative, 
which  leaves  solely  to  inference  what  were  the  feel- 
ings of  her,  who,  without  comprehending  the  mys- 
tery, flood  there  gazing  upward  on  the  agonized  face 
and  writhing  form  of  her  divine  Son,  through  the 
long  hours  of  mortal  anguifh  during  which  he  hung 
upon  the  cross. 

But  however  spontaneous  and  natural,  —  however 
true,  beautiful,  and  even  poetic,  —  and  however  vivid 
the  emotions  of  sorrow,  terror,  and  pity,  arifing  out 
uf    these    inftinctive    and    uninftru6ted    perceptions, 


t)  PROEM. 

there  is  a  vagueness  as  well  as  vividness,  and  a  re- 
sulting incapacity  to  express  clearly  and  adequately 
what  is  so  genuinely  felt.  The  ability  to  do  this  is 
rare,  and  rarer  ftill  the  poetic  faculty,  whereby  the 
unwritten  melody  of  the  heart  is  accommodated  to 
all  lips  and  sung  in  all  ears.  To  say  that  the  author 
of  the  Stabat  Mater  poileiYed  this  power  and  achieved 
this  triumph  is  to  beftow  upon  him  and  his  work 
the  higheft  praise. 

Rude  though  he  be,  and  a  ftammerer  of  barbarous 
Latin,  he  gives  undeniable  evidence  of  being  a  true 
poet.  He  has  clairvoyance  and  second  fight.  The 
diftant  and  the  paft  are  made  to  him  a  virtual  here 
and  now.  He  is  in  Italy,  but  he  is  also  in  Judea. 
He  lives  in  the  thirteenth  century,  but  is  an  eye- 
witness of  the  crucifixion  in  the  beginning  of  the 
firft.  He  has  immediate  vifion.  All  that  is  tran- 
spiring on  Golgotha  is  distinctly  pictured  on  the  retina 
of  his  mind's  eye.  And  by  the  light  which  is  in 
him  he  photographs  what  he  sees  for  the  use  of 
others.  His  ecce !  is  no  pointless  indication,  but  an 
actual  fhowing.  The  wail  he  utters  is  a  veritable 
echo  of  that  which  goes  up  from  the  cross.  Every- 
thing is  true  to  nature  and  to  life. 


PROEM.  7 

The  Hymn  confifts  of  two  parts.  The  fir  ft  four 
verses  give  a  description  of  the  fituation  and  charac- 
ter of  the  actors  in  the  drama,  as  pictorially  powerful 
as  scripturally  juft.  From  this  fruitful  source  have 
come  all  the  Mater  Dolorosas  of  the  Painters.  It 
is  affumed,  in  accordance  with  the  belief  of  the 
Fathers,  that  the  prophecy  of  Simeon  :  "  A  sword 
fhall  pass  through  thy  own  soul  also,"  had  then  its 
proper  fulfilment.  In  the  remaining  fix  verses,  the 
writer  henceforth  difTatisfied  with  the  role  of  a  spec- 
tator, seeks  to  identify  himself  with  the  tragic  scene  ; 
prays  that  he  may  be  permitted  to  bear  a  part,  not 
in  the  way  of  sympathy  merely,  but  of  suffering  also, 
and  this  too,  the  same  both  in  kind  and  degree  ;  that, 
enduring  ftripe  for  ftripe,  wound  for  wound,  there 
might  be  to  him  in  every  ftage  of  the  Redeemer's 
paflion,  groan  answering  to  groan. 

It  is  now  that  the  Franciscan  appears  quite  as 
much  as  the  Chriftian.  Even  when,  as  in  the  8th 
verse,  he  quotes  St.  Paul  (who  speaks  of  "  bearing 
about  in  the  body  the  dying  of  the  Lord  Jesus"),  he 
is  evidently  thinking  of  St.  Francis.  He  would  fain 
have  repeated  the   miracle  of  the  "Stigmata"  in  his 


8  PROEM. 

own  person,  —  have  an  actual  and  vifible  reproduc- 
tion of  the  print  of  the  nails  and  the  spear  in  his  own 
hands  and  feet  and  fide.  As  "  plagas  "  in  the  laft 
line  of  the  same  verse  is  used  not  unfrequently  in  the 
sense,  not  so  much  of  wounds  as  the  marks  and  ap- 
pearances left  by  wounds,  it  would  correspond  very 
exactly  with  the  ftigmata  named  in  the  legend,  and 
moft  likely,  in  the  author's  use  of  it,  it  was  intended 
as  a  synonym.  The  poffibility  of  such  a  literalness, 
however  incredible  to  us,  would  not  be  so  to  him. 

This  Hymn  is  full  of  the  implied  merit  of  suffering, 
—  its  meritoriousness  in  itself.  And  this  is  probably 
one  of  the  reasons  why  it  became  such  a  favorite 
with  the  Flagellants,  otherwise  called  Brethren  of 
the  Cross  (Crucifrates)  and  Cross-Bearers  (Cruciferi), 
penitents  who,  in  the  thirteenth,  fourteenth,  and 
fifteenth  centuries  went  about  in  proceffion  day  and 
night,  travelling  everywhere,  naked  to  the  waist, 
with  heads  covered  with  a  white  cap  or  hood,  whence 
they  received  likewise  the  appellation  of  Dealbatores, 
finging  penitential  psalms,  and  whipping  themselves 
until  the  blood  flowed.  By  their  means  it  was  that 
the  knowledge  of  this  Hymn  was  firft  carried  to 
almoft  every  country  in  Europe. 


PROEM.  9 

The  authorfhip  of  the  Stabat  Mater,  like  that  of 
the  Dies  Iras,  has  been  the  subject  of  dispute.  It 
has  been  varioufly  ascribed  —  to  Pope  Innocent  III., 
but  backed  by  no  evidence  whatever;  to  one  of  the 
Gregories,  (either  the  9th,  10th,  or  nth,  which,  is 
not  ftated,)  on  the  authority  of  the  old  Florentine 
hiftorian  Antoninus,  who  lived  in  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury ;  to  John  XXII.,  on  the  faith  of  the  Genoese 
Chancellor  and  hiftorian,  Georgius  Stella,  who  wrote 
a  few  years  earlier  than  the  laft  named,  dying  in 
1420.  The  text,  as  supplied  by  him,  the  oldeft 
perhaps  extant,  differs  but  little  from  that  of  the 
MifTale  Romanum,  except  that  it  contains  three  more 
verses.  Others  have  referred  its  paternity,  contrary 
to  all  probability,  to  St.  Bernard.  Dismifling  all  these 
as  conjectures  unsupported  by  proof,  it  is  now  gen- 
erally conceded,  that  evidence  both  external  and  in- 
ternal makes  it  wellnigh  certain  that  the  Hymn  was 
the  work  of  a  Franciscan  friar,  a  junior  contemporary 
as  well  as  brother  of  the  author  of  Dies  Irae,  named 
Jacobus  de  Benedicts,  commonly  called  Jacopone, 
that  is,  the  great  Jacob.  This  latter  name,  it  seems, 
was  originally  defigned  as  a  kind  of  nickname  ;   the 


10  PROEM. 

syllabic  suffix,  one,  meaning  in  Italian  great,  having 
been  added  by  scoffing  contemporaries  by  way  of  de- 
rifion,  on  account  of  the  ftrangeness  of  his  appearance 
and  behavior.  Indeed,  if  we  may  credit  the  ftories 
told  by  Wadding,  the  Irifh  hiftorian  of  the  order, 
himself  one  of  the  number,  his  conduct  at  times 
so  far  exceeded  the  bounds  of  ordinary  fanatical  ex- 
travagance, as  to  be  totally  irreconcilable  with  the 
pofleffion  of  right  reason.  Wadding  expreffly  says 
that  he  was  subject  to  fits  of  insanity,  leading  him  at 
one  time  to  enter  the  public  market-place  naked, 
with  a  saddle  on  his  back  and  a  bridle  in  his  mouth, 
going  on  all  fours  ;  and  at  another,  after  anointing 
himself  with  oil,  and  rolling  himself  in  feathers  of 
various  colors,  to  make  his  appearance  suddenly,  in 
this  unseemly  and  hideous  guise,  in  the  midft  of  a 
gay  aiTembly  gathered  together  at  the  house  of  his 
brother  on  the  occafion  of  his  daughter's  marriage, — 
and  this  too,  in  disregard  of  previous  precautionary 
entreaties  of  friends,  who,  apprehenfive,  it  seems,  at 
the  time  they  invited  him  that  he  might  be  guilty  of 
some  crazy  manifefration  or  other,  had  begged  him 
not  to  do  anything  to  difturb  the  wedding  feftivities, 
but  to  behave  as  an  ordinary  citizen. 


PROEM.  II 

The  fhocking  circumftances  under  which  he  loft 
a  pious  and  beloved  wife  (the  fall  of  a  scaffold  upon 
which  a  large  number  of  females  were  seated  wit- 
neffing  some  spectacle),  and  the  discovery  after  death 
that  fhe  wore  a  girdle  of  hair  around  her  naked  body 
as  a  means  of  mortification  to  the  flefh,  affected  him, 
it  is  said,  to  such  a  degree,  that  he  immediately  re- 
solved to  abandon  the  world,  and  devote  the  remainder 
of  his  days  to  the  severeft  penances.  He  accordingly 
gave  up  all  his  civil  honors,  and  divided  his  eftate 
among  the  poor.  Uniting  himself  to  one  of  the 
exifting  orders,  he  now  went  abroad  as  a  monk, 
clothed  in  rags,  and  practifing  all  manner  of  ascetic 
severities  beyond  what  was  required  of  him  by  the 
rules  of  his  order. 

It  is  charitable  to  suppose  that  the  (hock  of  his 
domeftic  calamity,  while  it  awakened  his  religious 
senfibilities,  had  the  effecl:  at  the  same  time  of  un- 
settling his  reason,  caufmg  partial  insanity.  It  is  in 
no  wise  inconfiftent  with  this  suppofition,  that  he  was 
able  to  write  poems  of  such  excellence  as  the  Stabat 
Mater,  and  that  other  one  ascribed  to  him  by  Wad- 
ding :   "Cur  mundus   militat  sub   vana  gloria, "  &c, 


12  PROEM. 

fince  it  is  well  known  that  mental  unsoundness  on 
some  one  point  is  not  neceflarily  incompatible  with  the 
normal  exercise  of  the  general  powers  of  the  mind. 
This  medical  fact  was  not  so  well  underftood  in  his 
time  as  now  ;  and  when  at  the  end  of  ten  years  he 
defired  to  be  received  by  the  Minorites,  and  they 
hefitated  on  account  of  his  reputed  insanity,  their 
scruples  were  overcome  by  reading  his  work  "  On 
Contempt  of  the  World,"  conceiving  that  it  was 
impoffible  that  an  insane  man  could  write  so  excellent 
a  book.  This  would  seem  to  have  been  a  prose  work, 
written  probably  in  his  own  Italian  vernacular,  and 
therefore  not  to  be  confounded  with  the  Hymn  juft 
referred  to,  which  usually  bears  likewise  the  title 
of  "  De  Contemptu  Mundi." 

As  a  Minorite  he  was  not  willing  to  become  a 
pried:,  only  a  lay-brother.  Very  severe  againft  him- 
self, he  was,  says  Wadding,  always  full  of  defire  to 
imitate  Christ  and  suffer  for  Him.  In  an  ecftasy  he 
imagined  at  times  that  he  faw  Him  with  his  bodily 
eyes,  and  believed  that  Jesus  often  conversed  with 
him,  —  calling  him  deareft  Jacob.  Very  frequently 
he  was  seen  fighing  ;  sometimes  weeping,  sometimes 


PROEM.  13 

Tinging,  sometimes  embracing  trees,  and  exclaiming, 
;c  O  sweet  Jesus  !  O  gracious  Jesus  !  O  beloved 
Jesus  !  "  Once  when  weeping  loudly,  on  being  afked 
the  cause,  he  answered  :  "  Because  Love  is  not 
loved."  This  fine  saying  is  not  unworthy  of  the 
author  of  the   Stabat  Mater. 

For  determining  the  genuineness  of  love  he  gives 
these  searching  tefts.  u  I  cannot  know  pofitively  that 
I  love,  yet  I  have  some  good  marks  of  it.  Among 
others,  it  is  a  fign  of  love  to  God  when  I  afk  the 
Lord  for  something  and  He  does  it  not,  and  I  love 
Him  notwithfranding  more  than  before.  If  He  does 
contrary  to  that  which  I  seek  for  in  my  prayer,  and 
I  love  him  twofold  more  than  before,  it  is  a  fign  of 
right  love.  Of  love  to  my  neighbor  I  have  this  fign  : 
namely,  that  when  he  injures  me  I  love  him  not  less 
than  before.  Did  I  love  him  less,  it  would  prove 
that  I  had  loved  not  him  previoufly  but  myself."  In 
this  acute  appreciation  of  the  figns  and  symptoms  of 
true  love,  he  gives  evidence  certainly  of  no  want  of 
fki'l  in  spiritual  diagnosis  ;  and  were  he  equally  sound 
and  discriminating  in  all  parts  of  Chriftian  doctrine 
and   experience   as    in   this,  it   might  have  been  quite 


14  PROEM. 

safe  to  truft  him  with  the  cure  of  souls.  It  may  be 
that  his  tefts  are  too  severe  and  superhuman,  and  so 
far  erroneous. 

On  the  subjugation  of  the  senses  he  allegorizes 
in  this  wise  :  u  A  very  beautiful  virgin  had  five  broth- 
ers, and  all  were  very  poor.  And  the  virgin  had  a 
precious  jewel  of  great  worth.  One  brother  was  a 
guitar-player,  the  second  a  painter,  the  third  a  cook, 
the  fourth  a  spice  dealer,  the  fifth  a  pimp.  Each 
was  willing  to  use  blandifhments  to  get  the  ftone. 
The  firft  was  willing  to  play,  and  so  on.  But  fhe 
said:  What  fhall  I  do  when  the  mufic  has  ceased  ? 
In  fhort,  fhe  remained  firm,  and  gave  the  jewel  to 
none.  At  length  a  great  king  came,  who  was  willing 
to  raise  her  to  be  his  bride,  and  give  her  eternal  life 
if  fhe  would  present  him  with  the  ftone.  Where- 
upon fhe  says  :  How  can  I,  O  my  sovereign,  to  such 
grace  refuse  the  ftone  ;  and  so  fhe  gave  it  him."  It 
is  plain  that  by  the  brothers  are  meant  the  Five 
Senses  ;  by  the  virgin,  the  Soul  ;  and  by  the  precious 
jewel,  the  Will. 

With  his  severe  principles  and  severer  ascetic  life, 
Jacopone    could   not   fail    to    earneftly  denounce  the 


PROEM.  15 

coiruptions  of  his  time  in  general,  and  especially  the 
licentious  manners,  wickedness,  and  debaucheries 
of  the  priefthood,  and  the  deeply  sunken  condition 
of  the  Church.  Boniface  III.,  who,  prior  to  his 
elevation  to  the  papal  chair,  had  lived  in  friendly  re- 
lations with  Jacopone,  having  been  deeply  offended 
by  some  fharp  censures  directed  againft  him,  threw 
him  into  prison,  —  at  the  same  time  suspended  over 
him  the  excommunication.  Boniface  one  day  puff- 
ing the  cell  where  Jacopone  was,  afked  scornful- 
ly, "When  will  you  come  out?"  He  answered, 
"  When  you  come  in."  Boniface's  own  imprison- 
ment and  unhappy  end  in  1303  set  him  at  liberty. 

It  is  related  likewise  how  he  baffled  Satanic  craft 
by  superior  craftiness  of  his  own  ;  but  the  details  of 
these  temptations  are  so  childifh  and  ridiculous  that 
it  would  not  be  profitable  to  quote.  Doubtless  it  is 
more  fitting  to  weep  than  to  laugh  over  the  frenzies 
and  follies  of  such  a  man,  — 

"  To  see  that  noble  and  moft  sovereign  reason 
Like  sweet  bells  jangled  out  of  tune  and  harfh." 

His  whole  hiftory  gives  a  melancholy  but  inftruc- 
tive   infight   into  the   prevalent  fanaticism   and  dark 


l6  PROEM. 

ness  of  the  period.  His  death  took  place  at  an 
advanced  age  in  1306.  ct  He  died,"  says  Wadding, 
"like  the  swan,  Tinging,  —  having  composed  several 
Hymns  jufl  before  his  death." 

The  number  of  Tranflations  made  of  the  Stabat 
Mater  is  scarcely  exceeded  by  that  of  the  Dies  Iras. 
Lisco,  in  his  work  devoted  to  this  Prosa,  gives  or 
makes  mention  of  eighty-three  in  all,  complete  and 
incomplete.  With  the  exception  of  four  done  in 
Dutch,  these  are  all  German.  A  fimilar  collection 
of  Englifh  verfions,  although  comparatively  few  in 
number,  would  not  be  without  intereft.  In  attempting 
to  add  another  to  those  already  exifting,  the  present 
Tranflator  has  been  moved  by  a  defire  to  produce 
one  more  literal,  if  poffible,  than  any  he  has  seen. 
He  is  not,  he  confefies,  friendly  to  free  tranflations. 
Free,  he  has  often  observed,  is  another  name  for 
false.  A  counterfeit  is  put  in  the  place  of  the 
genuine  ;  so  that  init ead  of  a  Stabat  we  get  only 
some  worthless  subftitute.  He  honors  that  pains- 
taking religious  scrupulofity  which  respects  the  sa- 
credness  of  words  as  well  as  thoughts  ;  and  fhuns 
all  sacrilegious  license  and  profane  handling,  —  carry- 


PROEM.  17 

ing  this  reverence  for  the  venerated  text  so  far  as 
to  be  unwilling,  if  it  can  poffibly  be  helped,  to  vary 
one  jot  or  tittle,  either  in  the  way  of  subftitution  or 
alteration. 

He  has  no  patience  with  that  preposterous  conceit, 
sufficiently  common,  which  imagines  itself  competent 
to  improve  on  great  originals  —  whether  for  that  mat- 
ter these  be  in  a  foreign  tongue  or  the  vernacular, 
and  so  applies  to  all  tamperings  with  Englifh  hymns 
as  well.  It  is  much,  he  confiders,  as  if  some  absurd 
novice  of  the  bruin  mould  undertake  with  a  pre- 
sumptuous hand  to  retouch  a  Raphael  ;  or  an  irrev- 
erent ftone-cutter,  by  the  clumsy  use  of  his  chisel,  to 
improve  a  Venus  de  Medicis,  or  an  Apollo  Belvedere  ; 
or  some  ignorant  devotee  to  make  some  fine  ftatue 
of  the  Virgin  finer  by  puerile  adornments  of  dress, 
trinkets,  and  glass  beads.  If  the  use  of  means 
adapted  to  degrade  a  mafterpiece  to  the  level  of  an 
image  be  accounted  a  fin  and  an  outrage,  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  see  why  the  impertinences  of  the  cheap  em- 
bellifhments  of  every  would-be  tranflator  of  famous 
originals,  who  aspires  to  be  fine  rather  than  faithful, 
fhould  not  be  regarded   as   equally  criminal.     It  may 


l8  PROEM. 

be,  as  Dryden  says,  "  almoft  impoflible  to  tranfl.tte 
verbally  and  well  ;  "  but  as  the  portrait  of  a  friend  is 
worthless,  however  beautiful,  unless  it  be  a  likeness, 
so  we  hold  a  verfion  mufr.  fail  of  its  purpose  and  be 
wanting  in  value,  juft  so  far  as  it  is  lacking  in  the 
efTential  point  of  being  a  faithful  representation,  both 
as  to  form  and  spirit,  of  that  to  which  it  relates. 
What  is  here  said,  is  meant,  of  course,  to  apply  only 
to  what  is  deliberately  put  forth  as  a  veritable  trans- 
lation ;  and  not  to  a  production  which  avowedly  uses 
the  text  merely  as  a  theme,  profefling  and  claiming 
to  do  no  more.  In  this  case  one  may  deviate  as  he 
pleases.      It  is  exclufively  his  own  bufiness. 

With  these  views  of  the  duties  of  a  translator,  the 
writer  has  aimed,  however  much  he  may  have  fallen 
fhort,  to  make  his  rendering  a  word  for  word  reflec- 
tion of  the  original,  so  far  at  lead  as  the  rigorous 
requirements  of  rhyme  and  rhythm  would  allow. 
For  the  sake,  too,  of  a  closer  rhythmic  conformity, 
he  has  sought  even  to  preserve  the  mufical  quad- 
ruplications  of  the  female  rhymes  found  in  the  second 
and  fixth  verses.  The  text  adopted  is  that  of  the 
Roman  MifTal,  except  in  one  or  two  inftances  where 
another  reading  has  been  preferred. 


proem.  ig 

To  make  the  resemblance  between  the  two  Hymns 
(till  more  complete,  the  Stabat  Mater,  like  the  Dies 
Iras,  has  been  moil:  fortunate  in  its  mufical  alliances  ; 
having  been  made  the  theme  of  some  of  the  moft 
celebrated  compofitions  of  the  moft  eminent  com- 
posers. It  was  set  to  mufic  in  the  fixteenth  century 
by  the  famous  papal  chapel  mafter,  Paleftrina  ;  and 
his  compofition  is  ftill  annually  performed  in  the 
Siftine  Chapel  during  Holy  Week.  It  is  sung  like- 
wise in  connection  with  the  feftival  of  the  Seven 
Sorrows  of  the  Virgin,  The  compofition  of  Pergolefi, 
the  laft  and  moft  celebrated  of  his  works,  made  juft 
before  his  death  and  left  unfinifhed,  has  never,  down 
to  the  present  day,  been  surpafted,  if  equalled,  in 
the  eftimation  of  critics.  It  is  set  for  two  voices, 
with  accompaniments. 

Tieck,  in  his  Phantasus,  Vol.  2d,  p.  438,  (edition 
of  18  1 2,)  thus  speaks  of  the  compofition  of  Pergolefi 
and  the  Hymn  itself:  "The  loveliness  of  sorrow  in 
the  depth  of  pain,  the  smiling  in  tears,  the  childlike- 
ness,  which  touches  on  the  higheft  heaven,  had  to 
me  never  before  risen  so  bright  in  the  soul.  I  had 
to  turn    away  to   conceal    my  tears,  especially  at  the 


20  PROEM. 

place  :  c  Videt  suum  dulcem  natum.'  How  fignificant, 
that  the  Amen,  after  all  is  concluded,  ftill  sounds 
and  plays  in  itself,  and  in  tender  emotion  can  find 
no  end,  as  if  it  were  afraid  to  dry  up  the  tears,  and 
would  (till  fill  itself  with  sobbings.  The  poetry  itself 
is  touching  and  profoundly  penetrating  ;  surely  the 
poet  sang  those  rhymes  :  l  Quae  moerebat,  et  dolebat 
cum  videbat,'  with  a  moved  mind."  It  is  a  tradition, 
that  the  great  impreffion  which  the  Stabat  Mater  of 
the  young  artift  (Pergolefi)  made  on  its  firff  perform- 
ance, inflamed  another  mufician  with  such  furious 
envy,  that  he  ftruclc  down  the  young  man  as  he  was 
coming  out  of  the  church.  This  tradition  has  long 
ago  been  disproved,  but  as  Pergolefi  died  early,  it 
may,  as  one  remarks,  be  permitted  to  the  poet  to 
refer  to  this  ftory,  and  allow  him  to  fall  as  a  victim 
of  his  art  and  inspiration.  He  was  born  1704— ir 
at  Jefi,  and  died  1737  at  Torre  del  Greco,  at  the 
foot  of  Mount  Vesuvius,  where  he  had  retired  on 
account  of  his  weakened  health.  The  recent  com- 
position of  Roffini  is  popular  and  pleafing,  but  more 
operatic  than  ecclefiaftical,  and  so  is  better  suited 
to  the  concert-room  than  the  church. 


PROEM.  21 

The  names  of  other  diftinguished  composers  might 
be  cited,  such  as  Aftorga,  Haydn,  Bellini,  and  Neu- 
komm.  Aftorga's  principal  work  was  his  Stabat 
Mater,  the  MS.  of  which  is  frill  preserved  at  Oxford, 
he  having  lived  a  year  or  two  in  England.  He  was 
a  native  of  Sicily,  and  died  in  1755.  Haydn's  was 
published  in  the  year  1781. 

We  give  below  a   condensed  view  of  the  various 
readings   taken    from   Lisco ;    and    as    the    Hymn   is 
usually  divided   into   three-line   Strophes,  making   in 
all  twenty,  the  references  will  be  to  these  :  — 
Strophe  1,  line   3.     Dum — Qua. 

2,      "     l.     Contriftatam — Contriftantem. 

4,  "      2.      Et  tremebat  —  Pia  mater  —  Dum  videbat 

et  tremebat. 

5,  "      2.      Chrifti  matrem  fi  —  Matrem  Chrifti   cum. 

5,  "      3.      In  tanto  —  tanto  in. 

6,  "      1.     Quis  non  poflit  —  Quis  non  poteft — Quis 

poffit  non. 
8,     "      1.     Videns  —  Vidit. 
8,     "     2.      Morientem  —  Moriendo. 

8,  '*      3.      Dum  emifit  —  amifit. 

9,  "      1.      Pia  mater — Ej a  mater. 

10,  "      3.      Ut  fibi  —  Et  fibi  ;  ut  tibi ;  ut  ipfi ;  fibi  ut, 

11,  "     3.      Valide — vivide. 

12,  "      2.     Jam  dignati  —  Tarn  dignati. 


Strophe  12, 

line  3. 

»3i 

"      1. 

14, 

"      2. 

1+1 

"     3- 

15. 

"     2. 

16, 

"     2. 

16, 

"     3- 

i7i 

"      2. 

17. 

"     3- 

18, 

'*      1. 

22  PROEM. 

Pcenas  pro  me —  Pcenas  mecum. 

Fac  me  vere  tecum  —  Fac  me  tecum  pie. 

Te  libenter  —  Et  me  tibi  —  Tibi  me  con 

sociare. 
In  planctu  —  Cum  planctu. 
Mini  jam — Mihi  tarn. 
Suae  sortem  —  Fac  consortem. 
Plagas  recolere —  Plagis  te  colere. 
Cruce  hac  —  Cruce  fac   me  hac  beari  — 

Cruce  fac. 
Ob  amorem  —  Et  cruore. 
Inrlammatus  et  accensus  —  Flammis  urar 

ne  (ne  urar)  succensus. 
20,     "      3.     Gloria — Gratia. 

The    Stabat    Mater   of   Haydn    has    this    for    the 
eighteenth  Strophe  :  — 

Flammis  orci  ne  succendar 
Per  te,  virgo,  fac,  defendar, 
In  die  judicii. 

The    Carmelite    A4iflal    gives    for    the  nineteenth 
Strophe  the  following  :  — 

Chrifte,  cum  fit  hinc  exire 

Da  per  matrem  me  venire 

Ad  palmam  victorias. 

The  change  made    in  some  copies   of  the    seven- 


PROEM. 


23 


teenth  Strophe,  of  the  original  a  Cruce  hac  inebriari," 
into  "  Cruce  fac  me  hac  beari,"  is  fignihcant  of  some 
exception  having  been  taken  to  the  great  ltrength, 
not  to  say  the  audacity,  of  the  author's  metaphor,  — 
the  drunkenness  of  love. 


SEQUENTIA    DE    SEPTEM    DOLORIBU.' 
BEAT^    V1RGJNIS. 

I. 
TABAT  Mater  dolorosa 
j§f    Juxta  crucem  lachrymosa 
t$$-l  QiJ^  Penc^ebat  Filius  ; 

Cujus  animam  gementem, 
Contriftantem  et  dolentem, 
Pertranfivit  gladius. 

II. 

O  quam  triftis  et  afflicta 
Fuit  ilia  benedi£ta 

Mater  Unigeniti  ! 
Quae  moerebat  et  dolebat 
Et  tremebat,  cum  videbat 

Nati  pcenas  Inclyti. 


HYMN    OF   THE    SORROWS    OF   MARY, 


I. 

"TOOD  th'  afflicted  Mother  weeping, 
$    Near  the  crofs  her  ftation  keeping, 


Whereon  hung  her  Son  and  Lord 
Through  whose  spirit  sympathizing, 
Sorrowing  and  agonizing, 

Also  paired  the  cruel  sword. 

II. 

O  how  mournful  and  diftrefied 
Was  that  favored  and  mod  blefTed 

Mother  of  the  Only  Son  ! 
Trembling,  grieving,  bosom  heaving, 
While  perceiving,  scarce  believing, 

Pains  of  that  Illuftrious  One. 


26  STABAT    MATER. 

III. 

Quis  eft  homo,  qui  non  fleret, 
Matrem  Chrifti  fi  videret 

In  tanto  supplicio  ? 
Quis  non  pofTet  contriftari 
Piam  matrem  contemplari 

Dolentem  cum  P  i  1  i o  ? 

IV. 
Pro  peccatis  suae  gentis 
Vidit  Jesum  in  tormentis 

Et  flagellis  subditum  ; 
Vidic  suum  dulcem  natum 
Morientem,  desolatum, 

Dum  emifit  spiritum. 

V. 

Pia  Mater,  fons  amoris  ! 
Me  sentire  vim  doloris 

Fac,  ut  tecum  lugeam. 
Fac,  ut  ardeat  cor  meum 
In  amando  Chriftum  Deum 

Ut  Sibi  complaceam. 


STABAT    MATER.  2 

III. 

Who  the  man,  who,  called  a  brother, 
Would  not  weep,  saw  he  Chrift's  mother 

In  such  deep  diftrefs  and  wild? 
Who  could  not  sad  tribute  render 
Witnefling  that  mother  tender 

Agonizing  with  her  Child  ? 

IV. 
For  His  people's  fins  atoning 
Him  (he  saw  in  torments  groaning, 

Given  to  the  scourger's  rod  ; 
Saw  her  darling  Offspring,  dying 
Desolate,  forsaken,  crying, 

Yield  His  spirit  up  to  God. 

V. 

Make  me  feel  thy  sorrow's  power, 
That  with  thee  I  tears  mav  fhower, 

Tender  Mother,  fount  of  love  ! 
Make  my  heart  with  love  unceafing 
Burn  towards  Chrift  the  Lord,  that  p!eafmg 

I  may  be  to  Him  above. 


28  STABAT    MATER. 

VI. 
San&a  Mater,  iftud  agas, 
Crucifixi  fige  plagas 

Cordi  meo  valide. 
Tui  nati  vulnerati, 
Tam  dignati  pro  me  pati 

Poenas  mecum  divide. 

VII. 
Fac  me  tecum  vere  flere, 
Crucifixo  condolere, 

Donee  ego  vixero. 
Juxta  crucem  tecum  flare, 
Te  libenter  sociare, 

In  planctu  defidero. 

VIII. 

Virgo  virginum  praeclara, 
Mihi  tam  non  fis  amara, 

Fac  me  tecum  plangere  ; 
Fac  ut  portem  Chrifti  mortem, 
Paffionis  fac  consortem, 

Et  plagas  recolere. 


STABAT    MATER.  2^ 

VI. 

Holy  Mother,  this  be  granted, 

That  the  Slain  One's  wounds  be  planted 

Firmly  in  my  heart  to  bide. 
Of  Him  wounded,  all  aftounded,  — 
Depths  unbounded  for  me  sounded,  — 

All  the  pangs  with  me  divide. 

VII. 

Make  me  weep  with  thee  in  union  ; 
With  the  Crucified,  communion 

In  His  grief  and  suffering  give  : 
Near  the  crofs  with  tears  unfailing 
I  would  join  thee  in  thy  wailing 

Here  as  long  as  I  fhall  live. 

VIII. 

Maid  of  maidens,  all  excelling, 
Be  not  bitter,   me  repelling, 

Make  thou  me  a  mourner  too  ; 
Make  me  bear  about  Chrift's  dying, 
Share  His  pafiion,  fhame  defying, 

All  His  wounds  in  me  renew: 


30  STABAT    MATER. 

IX. 

Fac  me  plagis  vulnerari, 
Cruce  hac  inebriari 

Ob  amorem  Filii. 
Inflammatus  et  accensus, 
Per  te,  Virgo,  fim  defensus 

In  die  Judicii. 

X. 

Fac  me  cruce  cufrodiri, 
Morte  Chrifti  praemuniri, 

Confoveri  gratia. 
Quando  corpus  morietur, 
Fac  ut  animag  donetur 

Paradifi  gloria. 


t 


STABAT    MATER. 


3* 


IX. 

Wound  for  wound  be  there  created  ; 
With  the  Crofs  intoxicated 

For  thy  Son's  dear  sake,  I  pray- 
May  I,  fired  with  pure  affection, 
Virgin,  have  through  thee  protection 

in  the  solemn  Judgment  Day. 

X. 

Let  me  by  the  Crofs  be  warded, 
By  the  death  of  Chrift  be  guarded, 

Nourimed  by  divine  supplies. 
When  the  body  death  hath  riven, 
Grant  that  to  the  soul  be  given 

Glories  bright  of  Paradise. 


REMARKS. 


O  admiration  of  the  lyric  excellence  of 
the  Stabat  Mater  fhould  be  allowed  to 
blind  the  reader  to  those  objectionable 
features  which  muft  always  suffice,  as 
they  have  hitherto  done,  to  exclude  it  from  every 
hymnarium  of  Proteftant  Chriftendom.  For  not 
only  is  Marv  made  the  object  of  religious  worfhip, 
but  the  incommunicable  attributes  of  the  Deity  are 
freely  ascribed  to  her.  Her  agency  is  invoked  as  if 
fhe  were  the  third  person  of  the  Trinity,  or  had 
powers   coordinate  and   equal. 

Plainly  it  is  the  province  of  the  Holy  Ghoft,  and 
not  of  any  creature,  to  "  work  in  us  to  will  and  to 
do  ;  "  to  effect  spiritual  changes  ;  to  "  take  of  the 
things  of  Chrift  and  fhow  them  unto  us,"  —  and  yet 
these  are  the  very  things  which  fhe  herself  is  afked 
to  accomplifh  for  the  suppliant.     "  Fac,"  alone,  afide 


REMARKS.  33 

from  potential  equivalents,  is  used  at  leaft  nine  times, 
—  a  form  of  expreffion  manifeftly  inappropriate  un- 
lefs  addreffed  to  one  capable  of  a^Sls  causal  and  orig- 
inal and  therefore  divine.  Not  content,  it  seems, 
with  making  her  a  fountain  of  supernatural  influence, 
a  succedaneum  of  the  Holy  Ghoft,  her  efficiency 
is  extended  to  the  performance  likewise  of  the  work 
affigned  to  the  Son,  — 

Per  te,  Virgo,  fim  defensus 
In  die  Judicii,  — 

an  expreflion  of  reliance  on  her  rather  than  on  Him 
to  ward  off  in  that  day  the  demands  of  divine  juftice. 
Mariolatry  here  culminates.  It  could  not  well  be 
carried  farther. 

Confidering  that  the  pofition  here  given  to  the 
mother  of  Chrift  receives  not  a  particle  of  counte- 
nance anywhere  in  the  New  Teftament,  one  is  led 
to  wonder  how  those  who  accepted  its  teachings 
could  ever  have  fallen  into  so  awful  an  error.  If 
prayer  of  any  kind  addrefTed  to  her  were  laudable  or 
lawful,  how  can  it  be  explained  that  all  the  sacred 
writers  are  so  intensely  reticent  upon  the  point  that 
it  is  not  poflible  to  find  written  so  much  as  a  fingle 
3 


34  REMARKS. 

syllable  to  authorize  it,  or  a  solitary  example  to  sanc- 
tion it  ?  It  is  remarkable  that  Chrift,  while  here  on 
earth,  did  not  hefitate  to  rebuke  His  mother  on  a 
certain  occafion  when  (he  manifefted  a  dispofition  to 
intrude  her  maternal  human  relation  into  the  sphere 
of  His  divinity,  saying  :  "  Woman,  what  have  I  to  do 
with  thee?"  At  another  time,  upon  being  told  that 
His  mother  and  His  brethren  flood  waiting  without, 
He  said,  ct  Who  is  my  mother  ?  and  who  are  my 
brethren  ?  "  and  ftretching  forth  His  hand  toward 
His  disciples,  He  said,  "  Behold,  my  mother  and  my 
brethren  ?  For  whosoever  (hall  do  the  will  of  my 
Father  which  is  in  heaven,  the  same  is  my  brother 
and  lifter  and  mother." 

Everybody  muft  feel  that  there  is  a  sublime  propri- 
ety in  this  declarative  poftponement,  once  for  all,  of 
flefhly  relationfhips  to  the  spiritual  ;  and  that  it  would 
be  infinitely  unbecoming  in  Him,  who  is  the  Creator 
of  all  and  the  Judge  of  all,  to  be  a  respecter  of  per- 
sons, swayed  as  men  are  swayed  by  the  fond  par- 
tialities of  blood  and  kindred.  Upon  this  principle 
it  is  easy  to  account  for  the  flight  mention  made  of 
Chrift's   mother  in   the    Evangelifts,    and    the  entire 


REMARKS.  35 

absence  of  any  allufion  to  her  in  the  reft  of  the  New 
Teftament.  Even  the  Apoftle  John,  to  whose  lov- 
ing care  fhe  was  committed,  and  who  took  her  to 
his  own  house,  neither  in  his  Epiftles  nor  in  the 
Apocalypse  names  her  so  much  as  once.  Paul,  the 
moft  voluminous  of  the  New  Teftament  writers,  is 
wholly  filent  in  regard  to  her. 

When  the  people  of  Lyftra  were  making  ready  to 
pay  divine  honors  to  Barnabas  and  Paul,  they,  hear- 
ing of*  it,  "  rent  their  clothes,  and  ran  among  the 
people,  crying  out  and  saying,  Sirs,  why  do  ye  these 
things  ?  "  If  these  revolted  at  the  idea  of  being 
made  the  objects  of  religious  worfhip,  can  we  sup- 
pose that  supreme  form  of  it  lefs  (hocking  to  the 
soul  of  Mary,  which  is  neceftarily  implied  in  ad- 
drefling  her  as  the  omniscient  and  omnipresent 
hearer  and  answerer  of  prayer  ?  Such  honor  is 
difhonor.  It  is  an  offering  of  robbery.  It  robs 
God. 


:xo.  i 


STABAT   MATER. 

(SUNG    ON    EVERY    FRIDAY    DURING    LENT.) 
,      As  sutig  in  the  Churches  at  Rome. 


Gregorian  Chant. 
From  the  "Catholic  Psalmist.' 


l^E.=EEiE: 


1.  Sta-bat    ma  -  ter    do-  lo  -  ro  -  sa,        Jux-ta     cru-cem 

2.  Cu-jus     a  -   ni  -  mam  ge  -  men-tem,      Gon-tris-tan-tem 


W- 


la- 
et 


cry 


mo  -  sa, 

Qua 

peu 

de 

bat 

fi    - 

h 

■   us. 

leu- tem, 

Per 

trau 

si 

vit 

gla  - 

di 

us. 

3.  O  quam  tristis  et  afflicta 
Fuit  ilia  beuedicta 

Mater  Unigeniti ! 

4.  Qupd  mcerebat  et  dolebat 
Et  tremebat  cum  videbat 

Nati  poenas  lnclyti. 

5.  Quis  est  homo,  qui  non  fleret, 
Mat  rem  Christi  si  videret 

lu  tanto  supplicio  ? 

6.  Quis  con  posset  contristari, 
Piam  matrem  contemplari 

Dolentem  cum  filio. 

7.  Pro  peccatis  suae  gentis 
Vidit  Jesum  in  tormentis 

Et  flagellis  subditum. 
S.  Vidit  suuiu  dulcem  Datum 
Morientem,  desolatum 

Dum  emisit  spiritum. 
9.  Pia  mater,  fons  amoris  ! 
Me  sent  ire  vim  doloris 

Fac,  ut  tecum  lugeam. 
Fac,  ut  ardeat  cor  meum 
In  amando  Christum  Deum, 

Ut  Sibi  complaceam. 
Sancta  mater,  istud  agas 
Crucifixi  fige  plagas 

Cordi  meo  valide. 


in 


11 


12.  Tui  uati  vuluerati 

Tarn  dignati  pro  me  pati 
Poeuas  mecum  divide. 

13.  Fac  me  tecum  pie  flere 
Crucifixo  coudolere 

Douee  ego  vixero. 
14  Juxta  crucem  tecum  stare 
Et  me  tibi  Bociare 
lu  planctu  desidero. 

15.  Virgo  virgioum  prreclara 
Mihi  tarn  non  sis  amaia, 

Fac  me  tecum  plangere. 

16.  Fac  ut  portem  Christi  mortem 
Passionis  fac  consortem 

Et  plagas  recolere. 

17.  Fac  me  plains  vulnerari 
Cruce  hac  iuebriari 

Ob  amorem  filii. 

18.  Inflammatus  et  accensus 
Per  te.  virgo,  sini  defensus 

Id  die  judicii. 
10.  Fac  me  cruce  custodiri 
Morte  Christi  praennmiri 
Confoveri  gratia. 
20.  Quando  corpus  niorietur 
Fac  ut  animse  douetur 
Paradisi  gloria. 


STABAT  MATER.-Chant  for  Pour  Voices. 

No.   ^2.  Novello.    From  "■Evening  Service, 


Sta-bat     ma-ter    do  -  lo   -    ro-sa 


Jux-ta       cru-cem 


tr 


r  -  mo-sa,       Qua  pen    -    de    -    bat      fi  -    li  -    us. 


la  -  cry  -  mo-sa 

-J  g(    r"?g 


> 


No.  3 


•  Uohr'*  Collection. 


I     l-i  I. 


--} — n 

Stabat    ma-ter     do-lo  -  ro  -  sa    Jux  -  ta       cru-cem 


-^-^lA^L 


iHl^S^^? 


zrr~: 


=£ 


TT"     i 
la  -  cry  -   mo  -  sa,   Qua  pen  -  de  -  bat     fi 

it— a i-#-r#-*- 


D& 


iabat  llaUr 


(SPECIOSA) 
HYMN    OF    THE    JOYS    OF    MARY 


TRANSLATED    BY 


ABRAHAM  COLES,  M.  D.,  Ph.  D. 


NEW    YORK 
D     APPLETON    AND    COMPANY 

1868 


Entered  according  to   Act  of  Congress  in  the  year   1867,  by 

Abraham  Coles, 

in  the   Clerk's  office  of  the   District  Court  of  the   District  of 

New  Jersey. 


STABAT    MATER 

(SPECIOSA). 

R.  PHILIP  SCHAFF  — whose  volumi- 
nous contributions  to  the  literature  and 
biftory  of  the  Chriftian  Church  reflect 
the  higheft  honor  upon  American  schol- 
arfhip  —  in  a  recent  number  of  ''Hours  at  Home" 
(May,  1867),  has,  thanks  to  an  eye  that  nothing 
escapes,  been  at  the  trouble  of  reproducing,  with 
learned  and  inftru&ive  comments  for  the  benefit  of 
readers  on  this  fide  of  the  Atlantic,  a  newly  discov- 
ered Stabat  Mater,  being  a  Nativity  Hymn,  writ- 
ten it  is  supposed  by  the  same  hand  as  the  Paflion 
Hymn,  so  that  hereafter,  as  he  remarks,  there  will 
be  two  Stabats  —  the  Stabat  Mater  Dolorosa,  and  the 
Stabat  Mater  Speciosa  ;  the  one  setting  forth  the 
Joys,  the  other  the  Sorrows,  of  the  Virgin  Mother 
at  the  Manger  and  the  Crofs. 


4  STABAT    MATER     (sPECIOSA). 

The  revival  of  this  long-loft  Hymn  in  our  time, 
after  five  centuries  of  forgetfulnefs,  is  due  to  A.  F. 
Ozanam,  who,  in  a  work  on  the  Franciscan  Poets 
(u  Les  Poetes  Franciscains  en  Italie  au  XIIIe  siecle, 
avec  un  Choix  de  petites  Fleurs  de  Saint  Francois, 
trad,  de  l'ltalien,"  Paris,  1852),  has  given  it  once 
more  to  the  world.  Hitherto  there  have  been  but 
two  tranflations  of  the  Hymn  —  one  into  German, 
by  Cardinal  Diepenbrock  ;  the  other,  into  Englifh, 
by  Neale,  made  juft  before  his  death.  This  Dr. 
SchafF  copies  in  the  article  referred  to.  Both  Oza- 
nam and  Neale  afTume  an  identity  of  authorfhip  for 
the  two  :  and  Neale  infers,  from  the  want  of  finifh 
and  the  imperfect  rhymes,  that  the  Mater  Speciosa 
was  composed  firft  ;  but  we  entirely  agree  with  Dr. 
SchafF  in  thinking  that  internal  evidence,  alone, 
makes  it  certain  that  this  is  not  the  case.  Ingeni- 
ous and  exact  as  is  the  parallel,  it  is  easy  enough  to 
see  which  was  firft  and  which  was  second.  If 
twins,  the  Mater  Dolorosa  muft  have  been  the  elder. 
It  is  impoffible  that  u  Pertranfivit  jubilus  "  was  writ- 
ten before  "Pertranfivit  gladius." 

But  we  doubt,  we  confefs,  a  fimultaneous  birth, 


STABAT    MATER    (SPECIOSA).  5 

or  even  a  common  parentage.  In  the  absence  of 
hiftorical  proof,  we  fhould  think  it  far  more  proba- 
ble, that  the  Mater  Speciosa  was  the  work  of  some 
admiring  imitator,  after  the  other  had  become  famous  ; 
who,  not  fully  satisfied  with  his  performance,  was 
waiting  to  give  it  its  final  touches  when  he  fhould  have 
decided  between  this  and  that;  which  explains  the 
supernumerary  lines  appended  to  the  eighth  ifrophe.* 
Afluming  the  priority  of  the  Mater  Dolorosa,  about 
which  there  cannot  be  a  particle  of  doubt,  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  conceive  that  the  other  could  have  been  the 
work  of  the  same  pen.  It  is  only  the  celebrity  of 
an  original  which  invites  parody.  A  man  would 
hardly  be  a  model  to  himself.  True  merit,  if  not 
unconscious,  is  usually  modeft,  and  it  is  not  likely 
that  our  author,  at  the  time  he  wrote,  placed  any 
special  value  upon  his  production  ;  much  lefs  fore- 
saw its  after  succefs.  Why  then  fhould  he,  in  pre- 
paring a  hymn  on  the  Nativity,  prepofteroufly  seek 
to    tie    himself    down    to    the    use    of    the    self-same 

*  "  Hunc  ardorem  fac  communem 
Ne  me  facias  immunem 
Ab  hoc  defiderio." 


6  STABAT    MATER    (sPECIOSA). 

words  and  order  of  words  which  he  had  happened 
to  employ  in  compofing  a  hymn  on  the  Crucifixion  ? 
After  this  had  grown  into  public  favor,  it  is  easy  to 
underftand,  how  some  one  else,  other  than  the  au- 
thor, fhould  be  prompted  to  attempt  so  curious  and 
difficult  a  tafk,  because  the  verbal  semblance  would 
aid,  by  afTociation,  in  exciting  fimilar  emotions  of 
reverent  intereft  and  sympathifing  tendernefs.  It  is 
right  to  ftate,  however,  that  opposed  to  this  conclu- 
fion  is  the  hiftorical  teftimony  of  a  second  edition  of 
the  Italian  Poems  of  Jacopone  (Laude  di  Frate  Jac- 
opone  da  Todi),  publifhed  at  Brescia,  in  1495,  which 
contains,  in  an  appendix,  several  Latin  poems  as- 
cribed to  him  ;  among  which,  according  to  Brunet, 
are  found  both  this  Mater  Speciosa,  and  the  Mater 
Dolorosa^  as  well  as  the  De  Contemptu  JIundi.  There 
may  be  other  evidence  in  support  of  this  opinion,  of 
which  we  are  ignorant  ;  but  as  the  case  frauds,  we 
are  compelled  to  adhere  to  the  belief  of  a  twofold 
authorfhip  ;  and  accept  the  above  only  as  supplying 
proof  of  the  earlinefs  of  its  origin. 

That  the  new  found  Stabat  is  not  wanting  in  those 
qualities  which    have   attracted   to   its   illuftrious  pro- 


STABAT    MATER    (SPECIOSA).  7 

totype  the  admiring  regards  of  men  through  so 
many  generations,  teftifies  to  the  fkill  of  the  writer. 
The  ftructural  correspondence  between  the  two  is 
kept  up  throughout.  Grief  and  gladnefs  are  seen 
to  go  hand  in  hand,  finging  as  they  go,  to  the  same 
sweet  time  and  measure.  Were  it  only  poetry  and 
not  prayer  —  mere  apoftrophe  and  not  religious  hom- 
age—  we  would  be  content  ;  but,  alas  !  there  clings 
to  one  and  the  other  the  fatal  taint  of  idolatry  ;  and 
we  are  not  permitted  to  wink  out  of  fight  so  un- 
speakable an  offense  againft  the  purity  of  the  unfhared 
worfhip  of  the  infinite  Jehovah. 

Happily  we  have  other  hymns  on  the  Nativity, 
againft  which  this  objection  does  not  lie.  Milton's, 
for  example,  the  grandeft  of  them  all,  is  wholly  to 
u  the  Infant  God,"  not  the  human  mother,  it 
divides  not  its  worfhip.  It  fings  and  celebrates  but 
the  One,  and  "  prevents  "  the  dawn  and  "  the  ftar- 
led  wizards,"  that  it  may  be  firft  with  its  exclufive 
offering  "  to  lay  it  lowly  at  His  blefled  feet."  Two 
Gmple  and  sweet  lines  at  the  close  comprise  all  that 
is  said  of  the  virgin  mother  : 

"  But  see,  the  virgin  bleft 
Hath  laid  her  Babe  to  reft." 


S  STABAT    MATER    (SPECIOSA). 

They  ftand  prefixed  to  the  Cradle  Hymn  of  Mrs. 
Browning,  and  may  have  suggefted  that  divine  lul- 
laby, "  The  Virgin  Mother  to  the  Child  Jesus." 
It  is  too  long  to  give  entire,  but  a  ricochet  extract 
may  suffice  to  exhibit  its  general  scope,  and  furnifh 
material  for  an  intereiting  and  inftructive  compari- 
son with  its  mediaeval  rival  : 

"  Sleep,  fleep,  my  Holy  One  ! 
My  flefh,  my  Lord  !  —  what  name  ?      I  do  not  know 
A  name  that  seemeth  not  too  high  or  low, 
Too  far  from  me  or  heaven. 
My  Jesus,  that  is  beft  !   that  word  being  given 

By  the  majeftic  angel  whose  command 
Was  softly  as  a  man's  beseeching  aid, 

When  I  and  all  the  earth  appeared  to  ftand 
In  the  great  overflow 
Of  light  celeftial  from  his  wings  and  head  — 

Sleep,  ileep,  my  Saving  One  ! 
And  art  Thou  come  for  saving,  baby-browed 

And  speechlefs  Being  —  art  Thou  come  for  saving  ? 

Art  come  for  saving,  O  my  weary  One  ? 
Perchance  this  ileep,  that  fhutteth  out  the  dreary 
Earth-sounds  and  motions,  opens  on  Thy  soul 
High  dreams  on  fire  with  God. 


STABAT    MATER    (sPECIOSA). 

Suffer  this  mother's  kits, 
Beft  thing  that  earthly  is. 

Thus  noiselefs,  thus.     Sleep,  fleep  my  dreaming  One  ! 

I  'm  'ware  of  you,  heavenly  Presences ! 

Unsunned  i'  the  sunfhine  !      I  am  'ware.     Ye  throw 
No  fhade  againft  the  wall  ! 

I  fall  not  on  my  sad  clay  face  before  ye  — 
I  look  on  His. 

Ye  are  but  fellow-worfhippers  with  me ! 

Sleep,  fleep,  my  worfhipped  One  ! 
We  sate  among  the  Halls  of  Bethlehem. 
The  dumb  kine  from  their  fodder  turning  them, 

Softened  their  horny  faces. 

The  fimple  fhepherds  from  their  ftar-lit  brooks, 

Brought  vifionary  looks, 
As  yet  in  their  aftonied  hearing  rung 

The  ftrange  sweet  angel-tongue. 
The  magi  of  the  Eaft,  in  sandals  worn 

Knelt  reverent. 


IO  STABAT    MATER    (SPECIOSA). 

So  let  all  earthlies  and  celeftials  wait 
Upon  Thy  royal  ftate. 
Sleep,  fleep  my  kingly  One  ! 

I  am  not  proud  —  not  proud  I 
Albeit  in  my  rlefh  God  sent  His  Son, 
Albeit  over  Him  my  head  is  bowed 
As  others  bow  before  Him,  ftill  my  heart 
Bows  lower  than  their  knees.     O  centuries, 

Whose  murmurs  seem  to  reach  me  while  I  keep 

Watch  o'er  this  fleep  — 
Say  of  me  as  the  Heavenly  said,  '  Thou  art 
The  bleffedeft  of  women  !  '  —  blejfedejl, 
Not  holiejl,  not  noblejl — no  high  name 
Whose  height  misplaced  may  pierce  me  like  a  Jhame, 
When  I  fit  meek  in  heaven.     For  me,  for  me 
God  knoivs  that  I  am  feeble  like  the  rejl.""1 


We  fhould  know  that  a  woman  wrote  this.  It  is 
a  woman's  utterance,  and  the  truer  because  it  is  so. 
Great  is  the  myftery  of  maternity  ;  great  is  the  joy 
of  a  mother  over  her  firft-born.  But,  in  the  ex- 
perience of  the  mother  of  our  Lord,  it  was  more 
than   the   common    myftery  and    the    common  joy. 


STABAT    MATER     (SPECIOSA).  II 

Heaven  had  come  down  to  her.  She,  a  lowly 
maiden,  of  meek  thoughts,  living  in  retirement,  had, 
not  long  before,  been  surprised  by  an  angelic  embas- 
sage, authenticating  her  as  the  chosen  infrrument  of 
a  ftupendous  manifeftation,  even  the  revelation  of 
the  great  myftery  of  Godlinefs,  God  manifeft  in 
the  flefh,  and  that  flefh  her  flefh —  a  holy  link  born 
of  her  miraculous  motherhood.  She  had  felt  the 
awe  of  a  wondrous  o'erfhadowing,  and  the  thrill  of  a 
divine  quickening,  and  the  joy  of  a  growing  burden, 
and  had  sung  her  exultant  Magnificat,  and  had  been 
full  of  wonderings  and  worfhippings,  long  before  the 
crowning  beatitude  of  the  bringing  forth,  and  the 
seeing,  and  the  hearing,  and  the  laying  in  the  bosom, 
and  the  chanting  of  the  Gloria  in  Excelsis  of  the 
angels,  and  the  homage  of  the  fhepherds,  and  the 
proftrations  of  the  magi.  Was  fhe  therefore  proud  ? 
Proud  !  Was  fhe  not  therefore  humble,  yea,  hum- 
bler than  the  humbled:  ?  Who  ought  to  kneel  so 
low  as  fhe  ?  O  for  a  humility  as  deep  as  the  grace 
is  high!  No  room  here  for  the  petty  elations  of 
vanity.  To  conceive  of  her  as  fitting  queen  of 
heaven,  arrogating  higheft  titles,  and  receiving,  well- 


12  STABAT    MATER    (SPECIOSA). 

pleased,  the  kneeling  homage  of  men  and  of  angels, 
—  what  an  indecency  !  How  it  vulgarizes  and  de- 
grades her  ;  such  an  inverfion  of  noblenefs  ;  such 
an  emptying  of  her  true  honor  and  proper  glory, 
which  confift  in  a  peerlefs  meeknefs,  bowing  ever 
lower  and  lower  at  the  footftool,  and  her  heart  bow- 
ing (till  lower  than  her  knees  !  Call  me  u  BlefTed," 
but  call  me 

"  no  high  name 

Whose  height  misplaced  may  pierce  me  like  a  fhame 

When  I  fit  meek  in  heaven." 

There  is  one  other  hymn  on  the  same  theme  by 
Crafhaw,  so  full  of  paftoral  sweetnefs,  that  we  can- 
not forbear  transcribing  it  here.  Crafhaw,  it  is  said, 
formed  his  flyle  on  the  moft  quaint  and  conceited 
school  of  Italian  poetry  —  that  of  Marino;  and 
there  is  often,  it  muft  be  admitted,  a  {trained  ex- 
preflion  in  his  verses  ;  but  there  are  also  many  ex- 
quifite  touches  of  beauty  and  tendernefs,  and  a 
ftrength  withal  which  more  than  compensates  for 
an  occafional  harfhnefs.  Of  all  his  writings,  he  is 
belt  known,  perhaps,  by  his  verfion  of  the  Dies 
Ira?.      In    1634    he    publifhed    a    volume    of    Latin 


STABAT    MATER    (SPECI-SA).  13 

poems  under  the  title  of  Epigrammaia  Sacra^  in 
which  occurs  that  celebrated  verse  on  the  miracle  at 
Cana  :  — 

"  Lympha  pudica  Deum  videt  et  erubuit." 

"  The  modeft  water  saw  its  God  and  blufhed." 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  both  Milton  and  Dryden 
have  each  been  credited  with  the  authorfhip  of  the 
line  as  given  in  Englifh,  varied  only  by  the  subftitu- 
tion  of  the  epithet  u  conscious  "  for  u  modeft." 

His  "  Hymn  on  the  Nativity  as  sung  by  Shep- 
herds," given  below,  was  probably  suggefted  by 
Correggio's  far-famed  picture  in  the  Dresden  Gal- 
lery, called  "  La  Notte  "  (The  Night),  and  forms 
a  fit  companion  to  it.  Picture  and  poem  have  com- 
mon attributes,  so  that  it  may  properly  be  said, 
that  the  one  is  the  other,  —  that  the  poem  is  a 
picture,  and  the  picture  a  poem.  In  both,  the  form 
of  the  Divine  Infant  is  finely  imagined  as  the  radi- 
ant centre  of  a  supernatural  illumination  dazzling  to 
all  eyes  in  the  picture  except  those  of  the  virgin 
mother,  while  figns  oi  daybreak  are  seen  along  the 
eaftern  horizon,  emblem  of  "  the  dayspring  from  on 
high  :  "  — 


14  STABAT    MATER     (SPELIOSA). 

k'  Gloomy  night  embraced  the  place 
Where  the  noble  Infant  lay  ; 
The  Babe  looked  up  and  Jhouued  its  face  — 
In  spite  of  darknefs  it  ivas  day. 
We  saw  Thee  in  Thy  balmy  neft, 
Bright  dawn  of  an  eternal  day  — 
We  saw  Thine  eyes  break  from  the  Eaft, 
And  chase  their  trembling  (hades  away, 
We  saw  Thee  and  we  bleff'd  the  fight  — ■ 
We  saiv  Thee  by  Thine  O'wn  s-iveet  light. 

She  fings  Thy  tears  alleep,  and  dips 

Her  kifles  in  Thy  weeping  eves; 

She  spreads  the  red  leaves  of  Thy  lips, 

That  in  their  buds  yet  blufhing  lie  ; 

Yet  when  young  April's  huiband-fhowers 

Shall  blefs  the  fruitful  Maia's  bed, 

We  '11  bring  the  firft-born  of  her  flowers 

To  kils  Thy  feet  and  crown  Thy  head. 

To  Thee,  dread  Lamb  !   whose  love  mull  keep 

The  fhepherds  more  than  they  the  flieep  — 

To  Thee,  meek  Majelty  !  soft  King  ! 

Of  fimple  graces  and  sweet  loves,  — 

Each  of  us  his  lamb  will  bring, 

Each  his  pair  of  filver  doves." 


Does  the  nightingale  fing  more  sweetlv 


STABAT    MATER    (SPECIOSA).  15 

"  Sweet  bird,  that  fhuns  the  noise  of  folly  — 
Moft  mufical,  moft  melancholy." 

In  this  new  attempt  to  turn  the  Mater  Speciosa 
into  Englifh,  we  have  tried,  as  in  other  tranflations, 
to  preserve,  as  far  as  poffible,  the  form  and  spirit  of 
the  original.  The  authorized  text  of  the  Mater 
Dolorosa^  being  that  of  the  Roman  Breviary,  com- 
prises ten  ftanzas  ;  while  that  of  the  Mater  Speciosa 
has  two  more,  namely,  the  fifth  and  eleventh,  whose 
answering  ftanzas  therefore  muft  be  looked  for  in 
some  other  text. 


STABAT     MATER 


(SPECIOSA). 


} TAB AT  Mater  speciosa, 
Juxta  foenum  gaudiosa, 

Dum  jacebat  parvulus  ; 
Cujus  animam  gaudentem, 
La&abundam  ac  ferventem, 
Pertranfivit  jubilus. 


II. 

O  quam  laeta  et  beata, 
Fuit  ilia  immaculata 

Mater  Unigeniti  ! 
Ouae  gaudebat  et  ridebat 
Exultabat,  cum  videbat 

Nati  oartum  inclvti. 


HYMN    OF    THE   JOYS    OF    MARY. 


i. 


TOOD  the  glad  and  beauteous  mother, 
^    By  the  hay,  where,  like  no  other, 
Lay  her  little  Infant  Boy  : 
Through  whose  soul  —  rejoicing,  yearn- 


And  with  love  maternal  burning  - 
Thrilling  pafled  the  lyric  joy. 


ii. 


Oh  what  grace  to  her  allotted, 
BleiTed  mother  and  unspotted 

Of  the  Sole  Begotten  One  ! 
Who  rejoiced  with  filvery  laughter 
As  fhe  gazed  exulting,  after 

Birth  of  her  Illuftrious  Son. 


STABAT    MATER    (SPECIOSA). 
III. 

Quis  jam  eft,  qui  non  gauderet 
Chrifti  matrem  fi  videret 

In  tanto  solatio  ? 
Quis  non  poffet  collaetari 
Chrifti  matrem  contemplari 

Ludentem  cum  filio  ? 

IV. 

Pro  peccatis  suae  gentis, 
Chriftum  vidit  cum  jumentis, 

Et  algori  subditum  ; 
Vidit  suum  dulcem  natum 
Vagientem,  adoratum, 

Vili  diversorio. 


Nato  Chrifto  in  praesepe, 
Cceli  cives  canunt  laete 

Cum  immenso  gaudio  ; 
Stabat  senex  cum  puella, 
Non  cum  verbo  nee  loquela, 

Stupescentes  cordibus. 


STABAT    MATER    (sPECIOSA).  19 

III. 

Who  is  he,  would  joy  not  greatly, 
If  he  saw  ChrifPs  mother,  lately 

With  such  solace  happy  made  ? 
Who  could  view  without  emotion 
That  fond  mother's  rapt  devotion, 
Playing  with  her  smiling  Babe  ? 

IV. 

For  His  people's  fins  providing, 
Chrifl  fhe  saw  with  cattle  biding, 

And  exposed  to  winter  keen  : 
Saw  her  Darling  Offspring,  crying 
As  an  infant,  worfhipped,  lying 

In  a  lodging  vile  and  mean. 

v. 

O'er  that  scene  surpaffmg  fable, 
Sing  they,  Chrift  born  in  a  liable, 

Heavenly  hofts  with  joy  immense: 
Old  men  flood  with  maidens  gazing, 
Speechlefs  at  that  fight  amazing, 

In  aftonifhment  intense. 


20  STABAT    MATER    (SPECIOSA). 

VI. 

Eja  Mater,  fons  amoris, 
Me  sentire  vim  ardoris, 

Fac  ut  tecum  sentiam 
Fac  ut  ardeat  cor  meum 
In  amatum  Chriftum  Deum, 

CJt  Sibi  complaceam. 

VII. 

Sandra  Mater,  iftud  agas, 
Prone  introducas  plagas 

Cordi  fixas  valide. 
Tui  nati  coelo  lapfi, 
Jam  dignati  foe  no  nasci 

Poenas  mecum  divide. 

VIII. 

Fac  me  vere  congaudere, 
Jesulino  cohoerere, 

Donee  ego  vixero  ! 
In  me  fiifat  ardor  tui  ; 
Puerino  fa :  me  frui 

Dum  sum  in  exilio! 


STABAT    MATER    (sPECIOSA).  21 

VI. 

Make  me,  Mother,  fount  of  loving, 
Feel  like  force  of  ardor  moving, 

That  I  thus  may  feel  with  thee  ! 
Let  my  heart  with  love  be  burning 
That,  in  Chrift  my  God  discerning, 

I  approved  of  Him  may  be! 

VII. 

Do  this,  Mother,  be  entreated, 
Firmly  fix  His  wounds,  repeated 

Each  in  my  heart  crucified  ! 
Of  thy  Son  —  the  Heavenly  Stranger, 
Deigning  birth  now  in  a  manger  — 

Sufferings  with  me  divide  ! 

VIII. 

Make  me  truly  fhare  thy  pleasure, 
Cleave  to  Jesus  and  Him  treasure, 

While  I  live  and  all  the  while  ! 
Work  in  me  thy  love's  completenefs, 
Feaft  me  with  thy  Sweet  One's  sweetnefs 

To  the  end  of  my  exile  ! 


22  STABAT    MATER      SPEC10SA). 

IX. 

Virgo  virginum  praeclara, 
Mihi  jam  non  fis  amara, 

Fac  me  parvum  rapere ! 
Fac  ut  pulchrum  fantem  portem, 
Qui  nascendo  vicit  mortem, 

Volens  vitam  tradere. 

x. 

Fac  me  tecum  satiari, 
Nato  me  inebriari, 

Stans  inter  tripudio  !  * 
Inflammatus  et  accensus 
Obftupescit  omnis  sensus 

Tali  de  commercio  ! 

XI. 

Omnes  ftabulum  amantes 
Et  paftores  vigilantes 

Pernoctantes  sociant. 

*  Since  inter  never  rules  the  ablative,  Dr.  Schaff  proposes  to 
read  :  "  '  Stantem  in  tripudio  !  '  referring  '  Stantem  '  to  '  me.'  " 


STABAT    MATER    (SPECIOSA).  23 

IX. 

Maid  all  other  maids  exceeding, 
Be  not  bitter  to  my  pleading, 

Let  me  take  thy  Little  One  ! 
Bear  the  Babe,  His  sweet  smile  wooing, 
Who  in  birth  wrought  death's  undoing, 

Giving  life  when  His  begun  \ 


Fill  me  with  thy  Child's  carefles, 
Make  me,  drunk  with  joy's  excefTes, 

In  thy  leaping  transport  fhare  ! 
Fired  and  kindled,  {truck  with  wonder, 
Let  each  sense  the  power  be  under 

Of  such  commerce  sweet  and  rare  ! 

XI. 

All  who  love  the  ftable,  blending 
With  the  watching  fhepherds,  spending 
All  the  night,  compose  one  band. 


24  STABAT    MATER    (SPECIOSA). 

Per  virtutem  nati  tui 
Ora  ut  electi  sui 

Ad  patriam  veniant ! 

XII. 

Fac  me  nato  cuftodiri 
Verbo  Dei  praemuniri, 

Conservari  gratia  ; 
Quando  corpus  morietur, 
Fac  ut  animae  donetur 

Tui  nati  vifio. 


^LP^LSUZlSj;    if)  v 


STABAT    MATER    (SPECIOSA).  2  5 

Pray,  through  ftrength  of  His  deserving, 
His  elect,  with  course  unswerving, 
May  attain  the  heavenly  land  ! 

XII. 

Let  me  by  thy  Son  be  warded, 
By  the  word  of  God  be  guarded, 

Kept  by  grace,  refused  to  none  ! 
When  my  body  death  hath  riven, 
Grant  that  to  my  soul  be  given 

Joyful  vifion  of  thy  Son  ! 


OLD    GEMS    IN    NEW   SETTINGS. 


fflld 


ems 


IN    NEW    SETTINGS 

COMPRISING    THE 

CHOICEST    OF    MEDIEVAL    HYMNS 

WITH 

ORIGINAL   TRANSLATIONS 

BY 

ABRAHAM   COLES,   M.  D.,  Ph.  D. 

SECOND    EDITION 


NEW    YORK 
D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY 

1868 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  it)  the  year  1866,  by 

Abraham  Coles, 

m  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  <>f  the  United  States  of  the  District  of 

New  Jersey. 


RIVERSIDE.     CAMBRIDGE: 

STEREOTYPED     AND     PRINTED     DT 

H.    0      HOUGHTON    AND    COMPACT. 


CONTENTS, 


PAGE 

Urbs  Ccelestis  Syon;  or,  the  Better  Country  7 

Veni  Sancte  Spiritus 50 

Veni  Creator  Spiritus 58 

Alphabetic    Judgment   Hymn   (Hymnus   Alpha- 

beticus  de  Die  Judicii) 69 

On  Contempt  of  the  World  (Carmen  Jaco- 

poni  de  contemptu  mundi,)    ....  76 


URBS    CCELESTIS    SYON ; 

OR, 

THE     BETTER    COUNTRY. 


N  Trench's  "  Sacred  Latin  Poetry  M  is 
given  a  beautiful  Cento  of  ninety-fix 
lines,  descriptive  of  the  Heavenly  Zion, 
taken  from  the  firft  part  of  a  long  poem 
of  nearly  three  thousand  lines,  entitled  tc  De  Con- 
temptu  Mundi"  written  in  the  12th  century  by 
Bernard  de  Morlas,  Monk  of  Cluny,  so  called 
to  diftinguifh  him  from  his  famous  contemporary  St. 
Bernard,  Abbot  of  Clairvaux.  Of  this  Cento  a  new 
tranflation  is  here  attempted.  Prefixed  to  it  are  the 
eight  opening  lines  of  the  Poem,  admonitory  of  the 
nearness  of  Chrift's  second  coming  to  judge  the 
world. 

Rev.  Dr.   John   Mason    Neale,  an    accomplifhed 


8  URB5    CCELESTIS    SYON. 

scholar  of  England,  juft  deceased,  whose  tranflations 
of  various  mediaeval  hymns  have  met  with  much  and 
merited  favor,  gave  a  verfion  of  the  larger  part  of  the 
above  Cento  under  the  title  of  "  The  Celeffj'al  Coun- 
try," following,  as  he  tells  us,  the  arrangement  of 
Trench  and  not  that  of  Bernard.  The  great  popular- 
ity which  this  attained,  as  evinced  by  the  numerous 
hymns  compiled  from  it  —  "  Jerusalem  the  Golden," 
in  particular,  having  found  a  place,  he  gratefully  ob- 
serves, in  some  twenty  hymnals  —  "led  him  to  think 
that  a  fuller  extract  from  the  Latin  and  a  further 
tranflation  into  Englifh  might  not  be  unaccept- 
able." 

Whether  by  this  process  there  was  not  as  much 
loft:  as  gained  admits  of  some  doubt.  It  set  afide 
Trench's  labor  of  love  as  impertinent  or  useless.  The 
matter  of  the  earlier  tranflation,  with  which  many 
had  become  familiar,  could  only  be  found  by  diligent 
search,  disjecta  membra  poetcs,  scattered  everywhere 
up  and  down  the  later  work.  One,  however,  might 
become  reconciled  to  this,  provided  improvement 
always  followed  ;  but  we  think  this  can  hardly  be 
claimed.      On  the   contrary,  what  is   added  too  often 


THE    BETTER    COUNTRY.  9 

appears  crude,  or  incongruous,  or  out  of  place,  or  of 
inferior  intereft.     For  example,  we  read  :  — 

"  Here,  is  the  warlike  trumpet, 
There,  life  set  free  from  fin, 
When  to  the  laft  Great  Supper 

The  faithful  lhall  come  in  ; 
When  the  heavenly  net  is  laden 
With  fifties  many  and  great, 
(  So  glorious  in  its  fulness 
And  so  inviolate.)" 

Without  access  to  the  original,  it  would  be  im- 
poilible  to  say  which  is  responfible,  the  author  or 
the  tranflator,  for  the  ftrange  groupings  contained  in 
the  following  verses  :  — 

"  Jefus,  the  Gem  of  Beauty, 

True  God  and  Man,  they  fing, 
The  never-failing  Garden, 

The  ^-x^r-golden  Ring, 
The  Door,  the  Pledge,  the  Hufband, 

The  Guardian  of  the  Court, 
The  Day-ftar  of  Salvation, 

The  Porter  and  the  Port." 

What  better  is  this  than  a  diftracting  medley  of 
names,  whose  meaning  and  fitness,  so  far  from  being 


10  URBS    CCELESTIS    SYON. 

immediately  obvious,  it  is  hard  to  discover  even  with 
time  and  ftudy.  Certainly,  one  needs  to  pofTess  a 
rare  nimbleness  of  fancy  to  qualify  him  to  overleap 
such  wide  spaces  as  intervene  between  "  the  never- 
failing  Garden"  and  the  "ever-golden  Ring,"  thence 
on  from  "  the  Door,  the  Pledge,  the  Hufband,"  to 
the  diftant  and  final  refting-place,  "  the  Porter  and 
the  Port  "  (whatever  these  may  be),  without  longer 
pauses  in  the  tranfition  than  the  puncfuation  calls  for. 
The  framer  of  the  Cento  did  well,  therefore,  we 
think,  in  leaving  out  lines  like  these,  and  no  advan- 
tage has  resulted  from  their  reftoration. 

In  regard  to  the  extraordinary  merit  of  the  orig- 
inal poem  —  at  leaft  that  part  of  it  which  forms  the 
exordium,  wherein  an  attempt  is  made  to  set  forth 
the  purity  and  peace  of  the  heavenly  Paradise,  by 
way  of  contraft,  and  for  the  purpose  of  throwing 
into  yet  bolder  and  more  appalling  relief  the  abound- 
ing pollutions  and  miseries  of  earth  which  it  is  the 
chief  defign  of  the  poem  to  present  —  there  can  be 
but  one  opinion.  Such  is  Dr.  Neale's  appreciation 
of   its  excellence,  that  he  has  "  no  hefitation  in   say- 


THE    BETTER    COUNTRY.  II 

ino-  that  he  looks  on  these  verses  of  Bernard  as  the 

D 

mod  lovely,  in  the  same  way  that  the  Dies  Ira  is 
the  moft  sublime,  and  the  Stabat  Mater  is  the  moft 
pathetic,  of  mediaeval  poems.  They  are,  he  thinks, 
even  superior  to  that  glorious  hymn  on  the  same 
subject,  the  De  Gloria  et  G  audi  is  Paradifi  of  St. 
Peter  Damiani.  So  Trench  looks  upon  "  the  Ode 
of  Cafimir  (the  great  Latin  poet  of  Poland)  Urit 
me  Patrice  decor,  which  turns  upon  the  same  theme, 
—  the  heavenly  homefickness,  —  with  all  its  claffical 
beauty,  as  a  less  real  and  deep  utterance  than  the 
poor  Cluniac  monk's." 

The  great  and  immediate  popularity  of  Neale's 
tranflation,  notwithstanding  its  defects,  is  a  further 
proof,  and  the  moft  conclufive  one,  perhaps,  of  all, 
that  it  pofTefTes  the  elements  of  genuine  power  — 
has  indeed  that  imperifhable  principle  of  lyric  life 
which  fits  it  to  be  the  interpreter  of  the  human  heart 
in  all  ages,  in  the  nineteenth  century  no  less  than 
the  twelfth.  It  too  doubtless  owes  much  to  its 
theme,  which  has  furnifhed  other  hymns  of  great 
sweetness  befides  those  already  named.  Two  in  par- 
ticular  are  deserving  of  special    mention,  —  one    in 


12  URBS    CCELESTIS    SYON. 

Latin,  Urbs  beata  Hirusalem,  and  one  in  Englifh, 
O  Mother  dtar,  Jerusalem.  But  the  heavenly  heart- 
ache, with  the  soul  enamored  of  its  home  in  the 
skies,  and  longing  to  depart,  never,  it  is  safe  to  say, 
found  a  sweeter  or  more  touching  expreflion  than  in 
these  lines  of  Bernard.  In  each  golden  furrow  of 
verse  are  scattered  in  rich  profufion  the  ripe  verita- 
ble seeds  of  those  immortal  flowers  that  bloom  in 
Paradise,  whence  — 

"  Gentle  gales, 
Fanning  their  odoriferous  wings,  dispense 
Native  perfumes,  and  whisper  whence  they  ftole 
Those  balmy  spoils.      As  when  to  those  who  sail 
Beyond  the  Cape  of  Hope,  and  now  are  paft 
Mozambic,  off  at  sea  north-eaft  winds  blow 
Sabean  odors  from  the  spicy  more 
Of  Araby  the  bleft." 

We  are  perpetually  reminded,  of  course,  that  the 
finger  is  ftill  in  the  body,  in  which  "  he  groans,  be- 
ing burdened  "  —  "  without  are  fightings  and  within 
are  fears"  —  is  a  mourning  exile,  waiting  deliver- 
ance, Tick  from  deferred  hope,  not  yet  permitted  to 
enter  the  Land  of  Promise,  but  nevertheless  in  lieu 
thereof  lifted   to  the   Mount   of  Vifion,  and   favored 


THE    BETTER    COUNTRY.  13 

with  ecftatic  glimpses  that  "  bring  all  heaven  before 
his  eyes."  No  wonder,  therefore,  his  ftrain  is  a  min- 
gled one,  by  turns  exultant  and  sad  ;  its  rejoicings 
full  of  interjected  fighs  —  suspirations  and  aspirations 
in  the  same  breath.  The  holy  inhabitants  seem 
almoil  "  too  happy  in  their  happiness  ;  "  it  makes  the 
contraft  with  the  present  (late  too  great,  too  painful  ; 
it  even  begets  doubt,  because  it  seems  too  much  to 
expect  ;  hope  is  afraid  to  soar  so  high.  The  mind 
is  described  as  finking  down  baffled  and  overwhelmed 
under  the  prefTure  of  that  "  far  more  exceeding  and 
eternal  weight  of  glory,"  blinded  and  overpowered 
by  the  intolerable  splendors  of  the  New  Jerusalem  ; 
and  we  are  reminded  of  that  fine  outburft  of  Pindaric 
rapture  in  which  "the  Bard  "  of  Gray,  in  like  man- 
ner dazzled  and  amazed  by  the  unexpected  fight  of 
England's  diftant  renown  and  greatness,  exclaims  :  — 

"  But  oh,  what  solemn  scenes  on  Snowdon's  height 
Descending  (low  their  glittering  fkirts  unroll? 
Vifions  of  glory,  spare  my  aching  fight, 
Ye  unborn  ages,  crowd  not  on  my  soul." 

Of  the  hiftory  of  the  original  poem,  this   much  is 
known.      It    was    written    about    the   year    1145    by 


14 


URBS    CCELESTIS    SYON 


Bernard,  a  Cluniac  monk,  as  already  ftated,  and  ad- 
dreffed  to  Peter,  his  own  abbot.  Judging  from  his 
writings,  he  muft  have  po  fie  fled  a  spirit  almoft  as 
dauntless  as  Luther's.  Apparently  actuated  by  a 
righteous  zeal  to  correct  some  of  the  mocking  abuses 
wh  ch  everywhere  prevailed  to  the  disgrace  of  the 
Chriftian  name,  he  in  this  poem  with  terrible  sever- 
ity and  with  matchless  power  of  sarcasm  exposes 
and  aflails  them,  —  plainly  denounces  the  fhameful 
greed  and  venality  of  the  Roman  court,  corrupt  from 
the  Pope  down,  where  fimony  was  openly  practiced, 
and  nothing  could  be  got  without  money,  but  any 
thing  with.      Here  is  a  specimen  of  his  manner  :  — 

"  Si  tua  nuncia  praevenit  uncia,  surge,  sequaris  ; 
Expete  limina,  nulla  gravamina  jam  verearis: 
Si  datur  uncia,  flat  prope  gratia  Pontificalis  ; 
Sin  procul  ha^c  valet,  hasc  tibi  lex  manet  eft  schola  talis." 

Money   is   needed,   if  that   has   preceded,   rise,   follow,  and 

enter; 
Bars  of  the  gateway  removed  (hall  be  ftraightway,  now  tear 

no  preventer  ; 
Give  but  the  penny,  then  nigh  thee  is  any  Pontifical  favor  ; 
Far  off  or  faileth  this  thing  that  availeth,  thy  case  is  much 

graver. 


THE    BETTER    COUNTRY.  1 5 

Such  being  its  character,  it  is  not  surprifing,  per- 
haps, that  it  has  been  a  greater  favorite  with  Proteft- 
ants  than  with  Catholics,  and  that  during  the  time  of 
and  fince  the  Reformation  editions  have  multiplied. 
It  was  unburied  and  firft  printed  at  Paris  in  1483. 
Flacius,  in  a  rare  work  publifhed  at  Bale  in  1557, 
(Varia  doclsrum,  piorumque  vivorum  de  corrupto  Ec- 
clefite  Jiatu  Poe?nata^)  pp.  247-349,  gives  it  with  the 
title  :  Bernhardus  Clunlacus  de  Contemptu  Mundi. 
Ad  Petrum  Abbatwn  sumn.  It  was  reprinted  in 
1597,  and  again  in  1610,  and  more  recently  flill  in 
Wachler's  "Annals"  in  1820.  Daniel  in  his  "The- 
saurus Hymnologicus  "  gives  only  the  firft  eight  lines 
under  the  heading  De  NoviJJimis.  These  opening 
lines  are  repeated  here  to  illuftrate  the  lfructure  of 
the  verse,  which  of  itself  is  one  of  the  curiofities  of 
literature.  It  is  a  bold  attempt  to  combine  ancient 
prosody  with  modern  rhyme.  Each  hexameter  line 
is  made  to  confift  of  five  dactyls  and  a  final  trochee, 
the  second  and  fourth  dactylic  feet  rhyming  together, 
and  the  trochaic  ending  rhyming  with  the  corre- 
sponding foot  of  the  following  line  ;  or,  as  it  may  be 
otherwise    exprefTed,    it   is   an    example    of  "  leonine 


l6  URBS    CCELESTIS    SYON. 

and  tailed  rhyme,  with  lines  in  three  parts,  between 
which  a  caesura  is  not  admiffible."  Below  we  have 
sought  to  represent  to  the  eye  these  peculiaiities  of 
ftruclure  by  marks  ;  and  furthermore,  have  ventured 
a  continuation  of  the  attempt  juft  made,  to  imitate 
the  metre  in  an  Englifh  tranflation  rendered  as  literal 
as  poffible.  While  one  would  not  care  to  prosecute 
it  through  a  long  poem,  we  are  persuaded  the  thing 
could  be  done,  and  in  a  manner  to  make  the  verse 
tolerably  readable  and  effective.  The  perpendicular 
lines  of  divifion  indicate  the  three  parts — the  firft 
two  parts  containing  two  dactyls  each,  the  second 
and  fourth  forming  a  rhyme  ;  and  the  third  part  con- 
taining one  dactyl  and  one  trochee,  the  final  trochee 
forming  a  double  rhyme  with  that  of  the  next  line. 
De  Novissimis. 

'  Hora  ndvlssima,  ||  tempore*  pesjiwa  ||  sunt  ;  xXgXlemus  ! 
Ecce  !    xmrx&citer  ||  imminet  Arbiter  ||  ille  supremus ! 
Imminet,  immine/\\ut  mala  terminer  \\  xqua  coronet, 
Refta  remuneret  ||  anxia  Wberet,  ||  rethera  donet, 
Auferat  aspera  ||  duraque  y>or\dera  ||  mentis  onujlce, 
Sobria  rxwmiat  ||  improba  Y>uniat\\  utraque  _/*(/&, 
Ille  pWs/imus,  ||  ille  gravhjimus,  ||  ecce  !  venh  Rex  ! 
Surgat  homo  reus .'  ||  Inftat  Homo  Deiu  \\  a  Patre  Judex." 


THE    BETTER    COUNTRY. 


Of  the  Last  Times. 


J7 


Laft  hours  n5w  tolling  are,  |j  worft  times  unrolling  are ;  (j 
watch  !  there  is  danger. 

L6  !  in  sublimity,||  threatening  proximity,  ||  h6ver'th  th'  Aven- 
ger ! 

Hdvereth,  hovereth,  ||  evil  uncovereth,  ||  equity  crowneth  ; 

Rfght  He  rewardeth  then,  ||  cdmfort  aff6rdeth  then,  ||  heirs  of 
heaven  6\vneth  ; 

Fr6m  the  mind,  6nerous||  burdens  and  ponderous  ||  bedreth  He 
lightly  ; 

Righteous  prote'cteth  He,  ||  wicked  reje'cteth  Fie  ||  both  alike 
rightly; 

King  in  His  clemency  ||  awful  supremacy  ||  cdmeth  to  gather  — 

Mdn  disentombing,  the  ||  God-Man  him  dooming,  the  ||  Judge 
from  the  Father. 

Surely  "there  is  a  pleasure  in  poetic  pains  that 
poets  only  know,"  otherwise  it  is  impoflible  to  con- 
ceive that  human  patience  could  have  held  out  in 
the  building  up  of  three  thousand  lines  in  so  difficult 
a  metre.  Like  the  execution  of  those  pictures  in 
mosaic,  seen  in  St.  Peter's  at  Rome,  which  took 
from  twelve  to  twenty  years  to  complete,  it  so  far 
transcends  all  modern  capabilities,  that  one  is  tempted 
to  class  Patience,  in  its  higher  manifeftations  at  lead, 
3 


1 8  URBS    CCELESTIS     SYON. 

among  "  the  Loft  Arts."  The  author  himself  seems 
to  have  been  filled  with  wonder  at  his  own  perform- 
ance ;  and  pioufly  acknowledges,  that  "if  he  had 
not  received  directly  from  on  high  the  gift  of  intelli- 
gence, he  had  not  dared  to  attempt  an  enterprise 
so  little  adapted  to  the  powers  of  the  human  mind." 
What  was  difficult  for  the  author  would  be  tenfold 
more  difficult  for  the  tranflator,  because  there  hang 
upon  him  numerous  clogs  from  which  the  other  is 
free.  Dr.  Neale  says: — "  I  have  deviated  from 
my  ordinary  rule  of  adopting  the  measure  of  the  orig- 
inal, because  our  language,  if  it  could  be  tortured  to 
any  diftant  resemblance  of  its  rhythm,  would  utterly 
fail  to  give  any  idea  of  the  majeftic  sweetness  of  the 
Latin."  Whether  it  was  necelTary  or  wise  to  go  to 
the  other  extreme — of  ballad  plainness  and  fimplicity 
—  some  may  doubt. 

The  artful  character  of  the  verse,  which  confti- 
tuted  one  of  its  chief  diftin&ions,  and  upon  which 
the  author  had  beftowed  so  much  labor,  was  thereby 
necefTarily  loft,  as  well  as  the  richness  and  melody  of 
its  oft-recurring  rhymes.  In  the  translation  here 
given,  the  writer  has    sought  to  preserve  "  the  leo- 


THE    BETTER    COUNTRY.  JO, 

nine  and  tailed  rhymes,  with  the  lines  in  three  parts," 
only  lengthening  the  third  member  so  as  to  make  of  it 
another  line,  and  ufing  anapefts  inftead  of  dactyls, 
as  being  a  kind  of  verse  better  suited  to  the  genius 
of  Englifh  prosody, —  the  dactylic  form  being  seldom 
used,  because  less  flowing  and  pleafing  to  the  ear. 
Had  it  been  thought  beft  that  the  dactylic  hexameter 
form  mould  be  retained,  he  is  hardly  prepared  to  go 
the  length  of  Dr.  Neale  and  deny  its  poilibility. 

How  far  the  present  translator  has  succeeded  it  is 
of  course  for  others  to  judge.  He  admits  that  if  it 
were  as  easy  to  be  faultless  as  it  is  to  find  fault,  there 
would  be  no  excuse  for  imperfection.  He  claims 
nothing  for  his  verfion.  It  is  sent  forth  as  a  timid 
and  humble  candidate  for  public  favor,  but  at  the 
same  time  not  as  a  mendicant,  afking  alms  and  beg- 
ging leave  to  be.  If  worthless,  let  it  die  —  in  other 
words,  let  nobody  read  it.  So  of  his  other  verfions. 
The  name,  "  The  Better  Country,''  was  chosen 
to  diftinguifh  it  from  others  upon  the  same  theme. 
That  it  will  supersede  "  The  Celeftial  Country  " 
is   neither  expected   nor  defired. 


URBS    CCELESTIS    SYON. 


^W^y^W\  ORA   noviffima,  tempora  peffima 


Imminet,  imminet  ut  mala  terminet 

aequa  coronet, 
Re&a   remuneret,   anxia   liberet, 

aethera  donet ; 
Auferat  aspera  duraque  pondera 

mentis    onuftae 
Sobria   muniat,  improba  puniat 

utraque  jufte. 


THE    BETTER    COUNTRY. 


HE  laft  of  the   hours,   iniquity  towers, 
S|¥j    The  times  are    the  worft,  let    us   vigils 


be  keeping! 
Left  the  Judge   who    is  near,  and    soon 
to  appear, 
Shall  us  at  His  coming  find   {lumbering  and  fleep- 
ing. 
He  is  nigh,  He  is  nigh  !     He  descends  from  the  fky 

For  the  ending  of  evil,  the  right's  coronation, 
The  juft  to  reward,   relief  to  afford, 

And  the  heavens  beftow  for  the  saints'  habitation  : 
To  lift  and  unbind  grievous  weights  from  the  mind, 

To  give  every  man   what  is  juft  and  is   equal, 
To  make  the  good   glad,   and   punifh   the   bad, 
To  the  praise  of  His  juftice  and  grace  in  the  sequel. 


22  URBS    CGELESTIS    SYON 


I  lie   piiffimus,   ille   graviflimus 

ecce  !   venit  Rex  ! 
Surgat   homo   reus  '      Inftat   Homo   Deus 

a  Patre  Judex. 


Hie   breve   vivitur,   hie   breve   plangitur 

hie   breve   fletur ; 
Non   breve   vivere,   non   breve   plangere 

retribuetur  ; 
O   retributio!   ftat  brevis  actio 

vita  perennis  ; 
O   retributio  !   coelica  manfio 

fiat  lue   plenis  ; 
Quid   datur  et  quibus  ?   aether   egentibus 

et  cruce  dignis, 
Sidera   vermibus,  optima  sontibus, 

aftra   malio;nis. 
Sunt  modo   praslia,   poitmodo  praemia  •, 

qualia  ?   plena, 


THE    BETTER    COUNTRY.  99 

Mod  clement  and  dear,   moft  juft  and   severe, 
Lo  !   cometh   the  King  in   terrible   splendor, 

Man  springs  from  the  sod,  and  the  Man  who  is  God, 
The   Judge  from   the   Father,  ftands   sentence  to 
render. 

The  life   here  below  so  brief  is  brief  woe, 

A   brief  mortal   space  for  weeping  afforded;  — 
Not  briefly  to  figh,  then   lie  down   and   die, 

Is  the  life  that  's  to  be  hereafter  awarded. 
O   moft  bleiied   award !  the  gift  of  the  Lord, 

A  life  whose  long  years  cannot  be  computed  ; 
O   ftrange   award   given  !   a   manfion   in   heaven 

Afligned  to  the  guilty,  the  sometime  polluted. 
What  *s   given,   and    to  whom  ?      In  the   firmament, 
room 
To    the    needy  and    those    by  the    cross    worthy 
rendered  — 
Yea,    on    Mercy's    sweet    terms,   orbs    celeftial   to 
worms, 
To  felons  the  beft,  to  the  hateful  ftars,  tendered. 
Now  are  battles  moft  hard  ;   after  these  the  reward. 
Reward  of  what   sort  ?     Reward    without    meas- 
ure ;  — 


24-  URBS    CCELESTIS    SYON. 

Plena  refeclio,   nullaque   paflio, 

nullaque  poena  ; 
Spe   modo   vivitur,   et  Sion   angitur 

a   Babylone  ; 
Nunc   tribulatio,  tunc  recreatio, 

sceptra,   coronse  ; 
Tunc   nova  gloria  pecl:ora  sobria 

clarirlcabit, 
Solvet  enigmata,   veraque   sabbata 

continuabit. 
Liber  et  hoftibus,  et  dominantibus 

ibit  Hebraeus  ; 
Liber  habebitur  et  celebrabitur 

hinc  jubilaeus. 
Patria  luminis,   inscia  turbinis 

inscia  litis, 
Cive  replebitur,  amplificabitur 

Israelitis  ; 


THE    BETTER    COUNTRY.  25 

Full  refrefhment,  repose,  full  exemption  from  woes, 
No  suffering,   no  pain,   only   unalloyed   pleasure. 
Now  live  we  in   hope,  and  Zion   muft  cope 

With   Babylon  proud  and  the  powers   infernal  ; 
Now  affliction   makes  sad,  then  delight  fhall  make 
glad, 
And  there  fhall  be  crowns  and  sceptres  supernal. 
Then  new  glory  divine  on  the  righteous  fhall  fhine, 
And  chase  from   their    breafts    the  darkness  that 
paineth, 
Chase    doubt    and    chase    fear,  and    enigmas    make 
clear — 
The    light    of    true    sabbaths,  "  the  reft  that  re- 
maineth.,, 
All  free  from  the  foe  and   his  mafter  fhall  go 
The  Hebrew,  whose  feet  heavy  chains  now  en- 
viron ;  — 
He  henceforth  held   free  fhall  keep  jubilee, 

No  more  to  be  bound   in  affliction  and  iron. 
A   Country  of  light,  unacquainted  with  night, 
Where  of  tempefr.  and  ftrife  nothing  breaks  the 
deep  flumber, 
With   inhabitants  free  it  neplenifhed  fhall  be  — 
Enlarged  with  true  Israelites  countless  in  number. 
4 


26  URBS    CCELESTIS    SYON. 

Patria  splendida,   terraque   florida, 

libera  spinis, 
Danda  fidelibus  eft  ibi  civibus 

hie  peregrinis. 
Tunc  erit  omnibus   inspicientibus 

ora  Tonantis 
Summa  potentia,  plena   scientia, 

pax  pia  Sanctis  ; 
Pax  fine  crimine,  pax  fine  turbine, 

pax  fine  rixa, 
Meta  laboribus,  atque  tumultibus 

anchora  fixa. 
Pars  mea  Rex  meus,  in  proprio  Deus 

ipse  decore, 
Visus  amabitur,  atque   videbitur 

Auclor  in  ore. 
Tunc  Jacob  Israel,  et  Lia  tunc   Rachel 

efficietur, 
Tunc  Syon  atria  pulchraque  patria 

perficietur 


THE    BETTER    COUNTRY.  2J 

Country  splendid   and  grand,  and  a  flowery  land 

That  's   free  from    all  thorns    and    free    from    all 
dangers, 
Is  there  to  be  given  to  the  free  born  of  heaven  — 

The     faithful,    who    here   are    now    pilgrims    and 
ftrangers. 
Shall  then   be  unrolled,  to  all  that  behold 

The  face  of   the  Thunderer,  and  to  such  solely, 
The  utmoft  extreme  of  power  supreme, 

Full  knowledge,  the  unutterable  peace  of  the  holy  : 
A   peace  by  the  tongue  of  flander   unftung  ;      [cor, 

A  peace  without  ftorm,  without  wrangling  or  ran- 
To  labors  a  goal,  and  to   billows   that  roll 

And  tumults    a  fixed  immovable  anchor. 
My  King  is  my  part,  God  Himself  in   my  heart, 

In  His  own  proper  beauty  auguft  and   endearing, 
I   (hall  see  and  enfhrine  and  challenge   as   mine, — 

My  Author  and  Saviour, — before    Him    appear- 
ing. 
Then  the  Israel  of  grace  fhall  Jacob  displace, 

And  Leah  be  Rachel  in  form  and  affection  ; 
Then  Zion  fhall   ftand,  a  beautiful  land, 

In  all  the  completeness  of  God-like  perfection. 


28  URRS    CCELESTIS    SYON. 

O   bona  Patria,  lumina  sobria 

te   speculantur, 
Ad  tua  nomina  lumina  sobria 

collacrymantur  ; 
Eft  tua   mentio  pectoris   unclio, 

cura  doloris, 
Concipientibus  aethera  mentibus 

ignis  amoris. 
Tu  locus  unicus,  illeque  ccelicus 

es   paradisus, 
Non  ibi  lacryma,  sed  placidiffima 

gaudia,  risus. 
Eft  ibi  confita  laurus,  et  infita 

cedrus   hysopo  ; 
Sunt  radiantia  jaspide  mcenia 

clara  pyropo  : 
Hinc  tibi  sardius,  inde  topazius, 

hinc  amethyftus  ; 
Eft  tua  fabrica  concio  ccelica 

gemmaque  Chriftus, 


THE    BETTER    COUNTRY.  ^r) 

O   Country   mod  dear,  our  longing  eyes  here, 

As  they   view  thee  afar,   with   defire  are  aching  : 
At  the  sound  of  thy  name  our  hearts  are  aflame, 

And    our    eyes    are    aweary   'twixt  weeping    and 
waking. 
Thy   mention   brings  reft,  is  balm   to  the  breaft, 

Is  the  cure  of  our  grief,  and  takes  away  sadness  ; 
The  thinking  of  thee  and  the  bliss  that  mall   be, 

Is  a  fire  of  love  and  a  fountain  of  gladness. 
The  only  place  thou  that  draws  our  hearts  now, — 

Thou  Paradise  art,  thou  our  blissful  Hereafter  ; 
No  tears  are  found  there,  no  sorrow,  no  care, 

But  sereneft  rejoicings  and  innocent  laughter. 
There  planted  are  seen,  eternally  green, 

The  laurel  and  cedar,  with  the  hyiTop  low  grow- 
ing ; 
There  are  walls  with  the  rays  of  the  jasper  ablaze, 

With    the     carbuncle    bright,  incandescent     and 
glowing  : 
The  sardius  mines  there,  here  the  topaz  moft  rare, 

Here  the  beams   of  the    amethyft   with    the    reft 
mingle  ; 
To  thy   fabric  belong  the  heavenly   throng, 

The  corner-ftone  Chrift,  gem  precious  and  fingle. 


30  URBS    CCELESTIS    SYON*. 

Tu  fine   littore,  tu   fine  tempore, 

fons   modo  rivus, 
Dulce  bonis   sapis,  eftque   tibi  lapis 

undique   vivus. 
Eft  tibi  laurea,  dos  datur  aurea, 

sponsa  decora, 
Primaque   Principis  oscula  suscipis, 

inspicis  ora  : 
Candida  lilia,   viva   monilia 

sunt   tibi,  sponsa, 
Agnus  adeft  tibi,  Sponsus  adeft  tibi, 

lux  speciosa ; 
Tota  negocia,  cantica  dulcia 

dulce   tonare, 
Tam    mala  debita,  quam   bona  prasbita 

conjubilare. 
Urbs  Syon  aurea,  patria    la&ea, 

cive  decora, 
Omne  cor  obruis,  omnibus  obftruis 

et  cor  et  ora. 


THE    BETTER    COUNTRY. 


3' 


Without  fhore,  without   time,   everlafting,  sublime, 

Thou,  fountain  and  ftream  late  hitherward  flowing, 
To  the  good   tafteft  sweet,  living  rock  at  their  feet 

That  all  through  the  wilderness   gladdened    their 

going.  [never  brown  ; 

Thine  's    the    laurel's    green    crown    with    its    leaf 

Rich  dower  all  golden,  fair  spouse,  is  thee  given  ; 
Thine  's  the  exquifite  bliss  of  the  Prince's  firft   kiss, 

And  the  fight  of  His  face  like  a  vifion  of  heaven. 
Fair  lilies  and   white,  living  gems   flafhing  bright, 

Compose,   happy   spouse,  thy  bridal  adorning  ; 
Sits  the  Lamb  by  thy  fide,  and  beams  on  His  bride, 

Like  the  sun  when  he  breaks  through  the  gates 
of  the  morning  ; 
Thy  whole  sweet  employ,   in  triumph   and  joy, 

Sweet  anthems  of  praise  to  warble  forever  ; 
Evils   merited   tell,  bleflings  granted  as  well, 

With   fhoutings  to  grace  that  terminate  never. 
City  golden  and  bleft,  from  thy  fields'  teeming   breaft 

Flow  rivers  of  milk, —  fair  people,  fair  dwellings  ; 
Thou     the     whole    heart     doft     whelm,    such     the 
charms  of  thy  realm, 

Choked    is    the    voice  with    the    heart's    mighty 
swellings. 


32  URBS    CCELESTIS    SYON. 

Nescio,  nescio,  quae  jubilatio, 

lux  tibi  qualis, 
Quam  socialia  gaudia,  gloria 

quam   specialis  : 
Laude  ftudens  ea  tollere,   mens   mea 

victa  fatiscit ; 
O   bona  gloria,   vincor  ;   in   omnia 

laus  tua  vicit. 
Sunt  Syon  atria  conjubilantia, 

martyre  plena, 
Give  micantia,   Principe  ftantia, 

luce  serena  : 
Eft  ibi  pascua,  mitibus  afflua, 

praeftita  Sanctis, 
Regis   ibi  thronus,  agminis  et  sonus 

eft  epulantis. 
Gens  duce  splendida,  concio  Candida 

veftibus   albis 
Sunt  fine  fletibus  in  Syon  aedibus 

aedibus  almis  ; 


THE    BETTER    COUNTRY.  33 

Confined   here  below,   I   pretend   not  to  know 

What  forms  this  rejoicing,  the   kind  of  light  given, 
Nor  how  lefty  the   heights  of  those  social  delights, 

Nor  how  special  the  glory  that  conftitutes  heaven. 
These  ftriving  to  raise  in   an   effort  of  praise, 

My  mind   overmastered,  )o!    fainteth  and  faileth  j 
O   glory   unknown,  I   am  conquered   I   own, 

Thy   superior  praise  in  all  things  prevaileth. 
There  are  fhoutings  and  calls   in  thy  echoing  halls 

With   the   martyr  hoft   full,   a  glorious   mufter, 
With  the  citizen,  bright,  with  the  Prince  aye  in  fight, 

Serene  evermore   with   a  soft,  sacred   luftre. 
There  sweet  paftures  around   for  the  gentle  abound, 

For  the  saints  a  dear  flock  by  the  water-brooks 
grazing ; 
There's  the  throne  of  the  King,    there  the  palace- 
walls  ring 

With  the  sound  of  a  multitude  feaftingand  praifing. 
Nation  glorious  and   grand,  through  the   conquering 
hand 

Of  the  Leader,  a  hoft  in  white  veftments  mining, 
Through  the  long  rolling   years  they  remain  with- 
out tears ;  [mg» 

In  the  dwellings  of  Zion  there  is  reft  from  repin- 
5 


34  URBS    CCELESTIS    SYC-N. 

Sunt  fine  crimine,  sunt  fine  turbine, 

sunt  fine  lite, 
In   Syon   sedibus  editioribus 

Israelite. 
Urbs   Syon   inclyta,  gloria  debita 

glorificandis, 
Tu  bona  vifibus  interioribus 

intima   pandis  : 
Intima  lumina,   mentis  acumina 

te   speculantur, 
Pechora  flammea  spe   modo,   poflea 

sorte  lucrantur, 
Urbs  Syon   unica,  manfio  myftica, 

condita  coelo, 
Nunc   tibi  gaudeo,  nunc   mihi  lugeo, 

triftor,   anhelo  : 
Te  quia  corpore  non   queo,  peclore 

saepe  penetro, 


THE    BETTER    COUNTRY.  35 

Without   crime,  without  ftorm,  to  mar  and   deform, 

Without    weapons    of   ftrife,    without    matter    of 
quarrel, 
The  Israelites  bleft  in  their  lofty   homes   reft, — 

The  olive  of    peace   intertwined   with   the  laurel 
O   illuftrious   name,   Zion,    higheft   in   fame, 

Whose  glory   is  that  to  the  glorified  owing, 
Thou    doft    knowledge    dispense    to  the    innermoft 
sense, 

Thy  innermoft  good  thus  secretly  fhowing. 
My   innermoft  eyes,  thus  piercing  the  fkies, 

From   the   mind's   higheft   peaks  delighted    behold 
thee  ; 
Now  my  breaft,   all  on   fire  with  hope  and   defire, 

Transported   expects  sometime  to  enfold  thee. 
Thou  Zion  art  one,  befide  thee   is  none,  — 

Upreared   in   the  fkies   a  myftical  dwelling, — 
Now   in   thee   I   am   glad,    now   in   me   I   am   sad, 

I  sob  and  I  figh  with  breaft  heaving  and  swelling. 
Since  the  body's  dull  clod   keeps   me  back  from   my 
God, 

Thee  to   pierce  I   oft  try  with   spiritual  pinion, 


3& 


URBS    CCELESTIS    SYON. 

Sed   caro  terrea,   terraque   carnea, 

mox  cado  retro, 
Nemo  retexere,   nemoque   promere 

suftinet   ore 
Quo  tua   moenia,  quo  capitalia 

plena  decore ; 
Opprimit  omne  cor  ille  tuus  decor, 

O   Syon,   O   pax, 
Urbs   fine   tempore,   nulla  poteft   fore 

laus   tibi    mendax  ; 
O   fine  luxibus,   O   fine  lu&ibus, 

O   fine  lite. 
Splendida  curia,   florida  patria, 

patria  vitae  ! 
Urbs  Syon  inclyta,  turris  et  edita 

littore  tuto, 
Te  peto,  te  colo,  te   flagro,   te   volo, 

canto,   saluto  ; 


THE    BETTER    COUNTRY.  ^7 

But    earthy  flefh,    flefhy  earth,   makes    th'   attempt 
little  worth, 
And   I   quickly  fall  back  to  the  senses'  dominion. 
No   mortal   may  dare  with   his  mouth  to  declare  — 
The   tafk  were  presumptuous    and    desperate  the 
duty  — 
Where  thy  walls,  how  they  rise,  in  what  part  of  the 
fkies 
Thy  capitals   mine  complete  in   their  beauty. 
Thy  charms,  they  weigh  down  the  heart  wholly  and 
drown, 
O   Zion  !   O   Peace  beyond  all  conceiving  ! 
City  bleft,  without  time,  dear,  tranquil,  sublime, 

No  poffible  praise  can  e'er  be  deceiving. 
No  delights  vain  and  lewd,  and   no  sorrows  intrude, 
No  ftrife  with  its  wafting,  its  burning  and  blading  ; 
Home  happy  and   high,  flowery  land   of  the  fky, 
Land  native  to  bliss  and  the  life  everlafting. 
City,  seen  from  afar,  where  the  glorified   are, 

On    a   safe   and    high    fhore,    lo  !    thy   towers   are 
soaring  ; 
Thee  I   sue,  I  admire,  thee  I  love,  I  defire, 
Sing  hymns  unto  thee,  and    salute  thee  adoring. 


38  URBS    CCELEST1S    SYON. 

Nec   meritis  peto,   nam    mcritis   meto 

morte   perire, 
Nec   reticens   tego,  quod   meritis  ego 

fiiius   irae  ; 
Vita  quidem   mea,   vita  nimis  rea, 

mortua   vita, 
Quippe  reatibus   exitialibus 

obruta,   trita. 
Spe  tamen   ambulo,   praemia  poftulo 

speque   fideque, 
Ilia  perennia  poftulo  praemia 

nodte   dieque. 
Me   Pater  optimus  atque   piimmus 

ille  creavit  ; 
In  lue  pertulit,  et  lue   suftulit, 

a  lue  lavit. 
Gratia  coelica  suftinet   unica 

totius  orbis, 


THE    BETTER    COUNTRY.  39 

Not  on   merit,  but  grace,   I   reft   solely   my   case, 

For,  measured  by  merit,  condemned  my  condition  ; 
Not  dumb  and   perverse  do  I   cover  the  worse  — 

I  own   I  'm   a  child  of  wrath  and   perdition. 
My   life  's   a  life   spilt,   void   of  good,   full  of  guilt, 

A   life  like  to  death,  without  vital  expreflions, 
Its     innocence     quenched,     from     its     proper     life 
wrenched, 

Deftroyed  by   reason  of  deadly  transgreflions. 
Notwithftanding  in  hope  I  walk  softly  and  grope, 

In  hope  and  in  faith  heavenly  guerdons  beseeching  ; 
I   trembling   and   weak,   eternal  joys  seek, 

By   night  and   by  day  imploring  hands  reaching. 
Our  Father  above,   whose   nature   is   love, 

The    beft    and   the    deareft,    He    made    and    He 
saved   me ; 
With   my  vileness   He  bore,  from   my  vileness   He 
tore, 

From    my    fin    and    uncleanness    He    graciously 
laved  me, 
Grace  celeftial  alone,  direct  from  the  throne, 

Is  the  sovereign  provifion  of  God's  own  appointing, 


40  URBS    CCELESTIS    SYON. 

Parcere  sordibus,  interioribus 

undtio   morbis  ; 
Diluit  omnia  ccelica  gratia, 

fons   David   undans 
Omnia  diluit,  omnibus  affluit 

omnia   mundans  ; 
O   pia  gratia,    celsa   palatia 

cernere  praefta, 
Ut  videam  bona,   feftaque   consona 

coelica  fefta. 
O   mea,   spes   mea,   tu   Syon  aurea, 

clarior  auro, 
Agmine  splendida,  ftans  duce,  florida 

perpete  lauro, 
O   bona  patria,  num  tua  gaudia 

teque   videbo  ? 
O   bona  patria,   num   tua   praemia 

plena  tenebo? 
Die  mihi,  flagito,  verbaque  reddito 

dicque,  Videbis. 


THE    BETTER    COUNTRY.  4  I 

The  sordid  of  soul  to  save  and   make  whole, 

P"or  inward  diseases  the  potent  anointing. 
Grace  wafhes  away  all   pollution   for  aye,  — 

The   Fountain  of  David,  as   free  as   redundant, 
Makes  pure   all  within,   makes  clean    from   all  fin, 

To  all  alike   flows   in   measure  abundant. 
O   excellent  grace  !  to  an   excellent  place 

Me  raise  to  discern   (lately   palaces  gleaming, 
At  a  diftance,  at  leaf},   see  the  heavenly  feaft 

With   holieft  mirth  and   melody   teeming. 
Thou  Zion  !  O   mine,   my  hope  all  divine  ! 

Like    gold,   but    far    nobler,  t'  our    dazzled    eyes 
looming, 
Moft  brilliant  thy  hoft,  but  their  Leader  's  thy  boaft, 

Brave  region  with  laurel  perpetually   blooming. 
O   Country   moft  sweet,  fhall   my  eyes   ever  greet 

Thy    turrets    and    towers,  and    know  thy  enjoy- 
ments ? 
O   Country   moft  bleft,   e'er  in  thee  fhall   I   reft, 

PofTess  thy  rewards  and  fhare  thy  employments  ? 
Tell  me,  I  pray,  render  answer,  and  say  : 

"Thou  (halt  hereafter  moft  surely  behold   me  — 


42 


URBS    CCELESTIS    SYON. 


Spem   solidam   gero  ;   remne   tenens  ero  ? 

die,  Retinebis. 
O   sacer,   O   pius,   O   ter  et  amplius 

ille   beatus, 
Cui  sua  pars   Deus  :   O   miser,   O   reus 

hac   viduatus. 
Bernardus  Cluniacensis. 


THE    BETTER    COUNTRY. 


43 


I   hope  entertain,  the  thing  hoped   shall  I   gain  ? 
O   say  :    Thou    forever  (halt   have,  and  fhalt  hold 
me. 
Advanced   to  that  sphere,   O   holy,   mod  dear, 
O   blefTed,  thrice  blefTed  and   blefTed   forever, 
Who    with    cleaving   of   heart,    chose   God    for    his 
part  : 
O    wretched,    undone,    who    from    this    did    him 
sever. 

Bernard  of  Cluny.     (XII.  Century.) 


VENI    SANCTE    SPIRITUS. 


LL  lovers  of  sacred  song  agree  in  align- 
ing to  this  Hymn  a  very  high  place. 
Clichtoveus  thinks  it  is  not  poffible  to 
praise  it  enough,  and  finds  it  easy  to 
believe  that  the  author  in  writing  it  was  divinely 
inspired.  Trench  characterizes  it  "  as  the  lovelieft 
of  all  the  Hymns  in  the  whole  circle  of  Latin  Sacred 
Poetry."  Nor  is  it  difficult  to  discover  the  grounds 
of  so  favorable  an  eftimate. 

Rarely  has  the  spirit  of  prayer  been  more  happily 
embodied,  or  "  winged  for  speedier  flight."  It  is 
the  soul  en  its  knees,  devoutly  receptive,  every  door 
thrown  open,  eager,  expectant,  looking  and  longing 
for  the  immediate  coming  of  the  Celeftial  Vifitant, 
going  forth  to  meet  Him,  to  kiss  His  feet,  to  haften 
His  approach,  to  teftify  a  holy  and  grateful  welcome, 
not  unmindful,  but  yet   not  deterred  by  the  unspeak- 


VENI    SANCTE    SPIRITUS.  45 

able  greatness  of  the  solicited  condescension,  in  ask- 
ing One  tc  whom  the  heaven  of  heavens  cannot  con- 
tain," to  ftoop  to  the  need  and  poverty  of  its  low 
eftate,  afiured  by  the  sure  word  of  promise,  and  en- 
couraged by  paft  experiences  of  His  faithfulness, 
that  "  whosoever  afketh  receiveth."  Truly,  it  were 
hard  to  find  a  serener,  sweeter,  truer,  truftfuller, 
terser  utterance,  where  words  so  few  exprefled  so 
much,  making  the  air  mufical,  charming  the  ear  with 
their  soft,  plaintive  cadences,  and  penetrating  the 
heart  with  the  infinuating  grace  of  their  prevalent 
pleading. 

The  merits  of  its  metrical  ftructure  are  in  keeping 
with  its  other  excellences.  It  has  the  triplet  char- 
acter of  Sequences  in  general,  confifting  of  five 
ftrophes  of  fix  lines  of  seven  syllables,  or  ten  half 
ftrophes,  the  firft  and  second  lines  of  which  rhyme 
together,  the  third  rhyming  with  the  corresponding 
third  line  of  the  following  half  ftrophe.  The  trans- 
lation here  given  is  made  to  conform  to  the  original 
in  these  as  well  as  in  other  respects. 

A  royal  authorfhip  is  claimed  for  the  Hymn.  It 
is  believed   to  have  been  written   by   Robert   II.   of 


4.6  VENI    SANCTE    SPIRITUS. 

France,  who  at  the  age  of  twenty-four,  in  the  year 
996,  succeeded  to  his  father,  Hugh  Capet,  and 
reigned  thirty-three  years.  He  is  described  as  — 
Omnigence  virtutis  alumnus^  — 

"  Pieux,  jufte,  savant,  charitable,  fiddle, 
De  toutes  les  vertus,  quel  plus  parfait  modele  ?  " 

By  the  sentence  of  Pope  Gregory  V.,  his  firft  mar- 
riage, which  had  been  to  Bertha,  his  coufin,  was 
diflblved.  He  was  afterwards  married  to  Conftance, 
surnamed  Blanche,  daughter  of  William  Count  d'  Aries 
&  de  Provence,  a  beautiful  princess,  but  proud,  capri- 
cious, and  unbearable,  who  conducted  herself  in  so 
ftrange  and  violent  a  manner  that  but  for  the  moder- 
ation and  wisdom  of  her  hufband  the  kingdom  would 
have  been  overturned.  Befides  being  one  of  the 
mildeft  of  sovereigns  and  the  meekeft  of  men,  he  is 
spoken  of  as  one  of  the  mod:  learned  of  his  time, 
particularly  in  mathematics.  So  charitable  was  he 
that  he  had  always  a  thousand  poor  under  his  care, 
whom  he  fed.  He  was  addicted  to  both  poetry  and 
mufic,  and  so  (killed  in  both  of  these  arts  that  some 
of  his  compofitions  are  {till  extant  and  in  use.      The 


VENI    SANCTE    SPIRITUS.  47 

following  example  of  magnanimity,  more  than  royal, 
is  given.  A  dangerous  conspiracy  againft  his  king- 
dom and  life  having  been  discovered  and  the  authors 
arretted,  as  the  other  nobles  were  afTembled  to  con- 
demn them  to  death,  he  caused  them  to  be  enter 
tained  in  a  splendid  manner,  and  the  next  day 
admitted  them  to  the  Holy  Communion  ;  after  which 
he  set  them  at  liberty,  saying,  that  he  could  not  put 
to  death  those  whom  Jesus  Chrift  had  juft  received 
at  His  table.  If  these  few  glimpses  of  his  life  re- 
veal to  us  the  nature  of  some  of  his  sorrows,  the 
hymn  here  given,  admitting  that  he  was  the  author, 
mows  no  less  clearly,  as  Trench  remarks,  the  nature 
of  his  consolations. 

The  Lutheran  Form  of  Ordination  prescribes  that 
the  "Veni  San&e  Spiritus  "  be  sung  at  the  begin- 
ning of  that  service.  In  the  Romifh  Church  it  is 
sung  on  Whitsunday  and  every  day  throughout  the 
week  till  the  Sabbath  following.  From  the  general 
(laughter  of  the  Sequences  made  in  the  fixteenth 
century,  this  and  three  others  were  the  only  ones 
that  escaped.* 

*  See  Dies  Jrje,  p.  61. 


VENI   SANCTE    SPIRITUS. 


ENI,  San&e    Spiritus, 
Et  emitte  coelitus, 
Lucis   tuas  radium. 
V&f2&9&    Veni,  pater   ^.perum, 
Veni,  dator  munerum, 
Veni,  lumen   cordiu-r. 


II. 


Consolator  optime, 
Dulcis   hospes  animae, 

Duke  refrigerium. 
In  labore  requies, 
In  aeftu  temperies, 

In  fletu  solatium. 


VENI    SANCTE    SPIRITUS. 


T. 


^OA4E,  O  Holy  Spirit,  come, 
gp    And  from  Thy  celeftial  home 
Of  Thy  light  a  ray  impart  ! 
Come  Thou,   Father  of  the   poor  ! 
Come  Thou,  Giver  of  heaven's  ftore  ! 
Come  Thou,  Light  of  everv  heart  ! 


II. 

Promised  Comforter  and  heft, 
Of  the  soul  the  deareft  Gueft, 

Sweet   Refrefhment   here  below. 
Reft,   in  labor,   to  the   feet, 
Coolness   in   the  scorching  heat, 

Solace   in   the  time  of  woe. 
7 


VENI    SANCTE    SPIR1TUS. 
III. 

O  lux  beatiflima  ! 
Reple  cordis   intima 

Tuorum  fldelium. 
Sine  tuo   numine, 
Nihil   eft   in   homine, 

Nihil  eft  innoxium. 

IV. 

Lava  quod   eft  sordidum, 
Riga  quod   eft  aridum, 

Sana  quod   eft  saucium  ! 
Flecte   quod  eft  rigidum, 
Fove  quod   eft   frigidum, 

Rege  quod  eft  devium  ! 

v. 
Da  tuis   fidelibus, 
In  te  confidentibus, 

Sanctum  septenarium  :  * 
Da   virtutis  meritum, 
Da  salutis   exitium, 

Da   perenne  gaudium  ! 

Robertus  Rex  Francis, 
The  seven  gifts  of  the  Spirit. 


VEN1    SANCTE    SPIRII'US.  5! 

III. 

O   moft  blefled  Light  !    the    heart's 
Innermoft,   moft   hidden   parts 

Of  Thy  faithful   people,  fill  ! 
Not   without  Thy  favor  can 
Any  thing  be  good  in  man, 

Any  thing  that  is  not  ill. 

IV. 

What  is   sordid   make   Thou  clean, 
What  is  dry  make  moift  and  green, 

What  is  wounded    heal   for  aye. 
Bend  what 's  rigid   to  Thy  will, 
Warm  Thou  whatsoe'er  is  chill, 

Guide  what  's  devious  and  aftray. 

v. 

To  Thy   faithful  given   be  — 
Those  confiding  ftill   in   Thee  — 

Gracioufly  the   holy  seven  : 
Give  Thou   virtue's   recompense, 
Give  a  safe  departure   hence, 
Give  th'   eternal  joy  of  heaven. 

Robert  II.  of  France. 
(Beginning  of  XL  Century.) 


VENI    CREATOR    SPIRITUS. 


HIS  well-known  Hymn,  older  than  the 
"  Veni  Sancte  Spiritus,"  is  of  the  same 
pure  type,  both  being  happily  character- 
ized by  a  mod  unromifh  catholicity  that 
makes  them  sweetly  acceptable  to  all  Chriftian  hearts. 
Here,  at  leaft,  there  is  no  profane  admixture  of  bor- 
rowed or  imitated  paganism  —  no  (landing  in  the  old 
Roman  Pantheon,  with  a  retention  of  not  a  little  of 
the  form  and  spirit  of  the  old  worfbip,  paying  vows 
to  manifold  apotheofized  Christian  saints,  as  once  to 
deceased  pagan  heroes  or  mythological  divinities  — 
but  a  solemn  address  and  devout  prayer  to  that 
"Creator  Spirit,"  who,  in  the  sublime  language  of 
Milton, — 

"  from  the  firft 
Was  present,  and  with  mighty  wings  outspread 


VENI    CREATOR    SPIR1TUS.  53 

Dove-like  sat  brooding  on  the  vaft  abyss 
And  made  it  pregnant  "  — 

u  the  third  subfiftence  of  the  divine  infinitude,  illu- 
minating Spirit,  the  joy  and  solace  of  created  things  ;  " 
M  who  can  enrich  with  all  utterance  and  knowledge, 
and  sends  out  His  Seraphim  with  the  hallowed  fire 
of  His  altar,  to  touch  and  purify  the  lips  of  whom 
He  pleases  ;  "  the  third  person  of  "  the  One  tri- 
personal  Godhead  "  — 

"  that  doth  prefer, 
Before  all  temples,  th'  upright  heart  and  pure,"  — 

not  invoked  as  a  Muse  to  inspire  the  poet's  song  and 
bear  him  upward  on  the  wings  of  a  swift  rapture  to 
4,1  the  higheft  heaven  of  invention," — but  as  the 
indispensable  Begetter  of  a  new  spiritual  life  in  the 
loft  soul  of  man  ;  the  Finger  of  the  mighty  power 
of  God  whose  saving  and  converting  touch,  reaching 
to  the  deepeft  springs  of  human  thought,  feeling,  and 
conduct,  uplifts  to  the  serene  altitude  of  "  heavenly 
places  in  ChrilT:  Jesus ;  "  the  myftery  of  an  ineffable 
Cause,  working;  effectuallv  "  to  will  and  to  do"  in 
perfect  harmony  with   the   utmoft  moral  freedom  of 


54.  VENI    CREATOR    SPIRITUS. 

action  and  volition  ;  the  supreme  Gift,  and  the  infi- 
nite Giver  of  gifts  ;  the  refident  Paraclete,  domefti- 
cated  in  human  consciousness  ;  the  Light  of  a  fteady 
illumination,  and  the  Fire  of  a  continual  joy  >  the 
incredible  sweetness  of  whose  comforting  and  com- 
pensatory presence  and  perpetual  indwelling,  accord- 
ing to  the  marvelous  saying  of  the  Divine  Lord 
Himself,  making  it  expedient  that  He  fhould  go  away 
in  order  that  there  might  follow  this  subftituted  and 
surpaffing  blefledness  to  His  bereaved  and  orphaned 
disciples  when  deprived  of  His  own  fight  and  soci- 
ety ; — the  Promise  of  the  Father,  Proceeding  Spirit, 
manifefted  in  a  miraculous  outpouring  of  baptismal 
fullness  on  the  day  of  Pentecoft,  as  a  crowning  proof 
to  all,  that  He  whom  the  Jews  had  crucified  had 
indeed  palled  into  the  higheft  heaven  and  been  to 
"  the  right  hand  of  God  exalted,"  thence  to  dispense 
this  immeasurable  grace  to  the  children  of  men,  that 
they  in  turn  might  celebrate  in  glad  doxologies  the 
triune  Jehovah,  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghoft,  through- 
out all  ages,  Amen  ! 

Although    it   is   not  certainly  known   that  Charle- 
magne  is   the   author,   he    is  commonly   so   reputed. 


VENI    CREATOR    SPIRITUS.  55 

Others  think  the  probabilities  are  in  favor  of  Gregory 
the  Great.  They  say,  the  claffic  metre  with  the  in- 
termingling rhymes,  and  the  ftyle  generally,  are  Greg- 
ory's. So,  too,  the  claffic  scanflon  of  the  fifth  line 
making  the  penult  of  "Paraclitus"  long,  betrays,  it  is 
argued,  the  Grecian  which  Gregory  was,  and  Char- 
lemagne was  not.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  alTerted 
that  Charlemagne  was  quite  equal  to  the  tafk.  M  His 
eloquence,"  says  his  Secretary,  "  was  abundant.  He 
was  able  to  express  with  facility  all  he  wifhed  ;  and 
not  content  with  his  mother  tongue,  he  bellowed 
great  pains  upon  foreign  languages.  He  had  taken 
so  well  to  the  Latin,  that  he  was  able  to  speak  pub- 
licly in  that  language  almoft  as  eafily  as  in  his  own. 
He  underftood  Greek  and  ftudied  Hebrew."  He 
wrote  other  verses,  which  are  ftill  extant  :  —  an  epi- 
taph on  Adrian  I.,  the  Song  of  Roland,  an  ode  to 
the  scholar  Warnefride,  and  an  epigram  in  hexameter 
verse.  There  exifts  a  letter  addrefTed  by  him  to  his 
bifhops,  entitled  De  gratid  septiformis  Spiritus,  mow- 
ing that  he  took  a  special  intereft  in  the  subject  of 
the  Hymn.  Moieover,  the  twofold  proceffion  of 
*:he  Holy  Ghoft,  affirmed  in  the  fixth  ftrophe,  and 


56  VENI    CREATOR    SPIRITUS. 

with  an  emphafis  implying  that  it  was  confidered  an 
important  article  of  bel'ef,  was  firft  confirmed  as  the 
doctrine  of  the  Weftern  Church  by  a  Synod  aflem- 
bled  under  imperial  auspices  at  Aix-la-Chapelle  in 
the  year  809  ;  and  this  circumftance  ftrengthens,  it 
is  thought,  the  probability  that  he  was  the  author. 
Charlemagne,  "  claimed  by  the  Church  as  a  saint, 
by  the  French  as  their  greateft  king,  by  the  Germans 
as  their  countryman,  by  the  Italians  as  their  emperor," 
died  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  we  are  told,  with  his  crown 
upon  his  head,  and  his  copy  of  the  Gospels  upon  his 
knees. 

Befides  being  used  as  a  Pentecoftal  Hymn,  it  has 
been  the  cuftom  to  employ  it  on  great  occafions  like 
the  coronation  of  kings,  the  celebration  of  synods, 
and,  in  the  Romifh  Church,  the  creation  of"  popes, 
&c.  It  is  the  only  Breviary  Hymn  retained  by  the 
Episcopal  Church,  where  a  place  is  affigned  it  in  the 
offices  for  the  ordination  of  priefts  and  the  consecra- 
tion of  bifhops.  The  Prayer  Book  contains  two 
verfions.  Dryden's  admirable  paraphrase  is  well 
known.  The  rendering  here  given  is  much  more 
close.       In    German    there    are    several    tranflations. 


VENI    CREATOR    bPIRITUS. 


57 


One    by    [  uther    begins  :     Kum     Schepher    helliger 
Geiji. 

The  Latin  text  varies  in  different  editions.  Some 
interpolate  between  the  5th  and  6th  verses  the  fol- 
lowing additional  one  : 

Da  gaudiorum  prasmia, 
Da  gratiarum  munera, 
Diflblve  litis  vincula, 
Adftringe  pacis  fcedera. 

The  final  verse  is  sometimes  given  thus  : 

Sit  laus  Patri  cum  Filio, 
San&o  fimul  Paraclito, 
Nobisque  mittat  Filius, 
Charisma  San&i  Spiritus. 

That  the  final  verse  was  added  afterwards  may  be 
deduced  from  the  fa£t  that  the  quantity  of  "  Para- 
clito "  in  this  differs  from  that  of  "  Paraclitus  "  in 
the  second  verse  of  the  hymn — the  penult  in  the 
one  case  being  fhort  and  in  the  other  long.  The 
Hymn  moreover  in  its  present  form  has,  so  to  speak, 
a  double  doxology  or  celebration  of  the  Trinity, 
which  increases  the  probability  that  it  ended  origin- 
ally with  the  fixth   verse. 


VENI    CREATOR    SPIRITUS. 


ENI,  Creator  Spiritus, 
Mentes  tuorum  vifita, 
Imple  superna  gratia, 
Quae   tu   creafti   pectora. 


II. 


Qui   Paraclitus   diceris 
Donum   Dei   altiflimi, 
Fons   vivus,   ignis,  charitas, 
Et  spiritalis  un&io. 


in. 


Tu   septiformis   munere,1 
Dextrae   Dei  tu   digitus,2 
Tu  rite   promiiium   Patris, 
Sermone  ditans  guttura. 


VENI    CREATOR    SPIRITUS. 


l. 


REATOR  Spirit,  Gueft  Divine, 
Come,  vifit  and   inhabit   Thine, 
Enter  the   mind's   Mod   Holy   Place, 
And  breads  Thou  madefr.  fill  with  grace. 


II. 


Thou   who  art  called   the   Paraclete, 
Of  God   Moft    High   the   Gift  complete, 
The   Living  Fount,   the  Fire,  the  Love, 
And    Holy  Un&ion   from  above. 


in. 


Sevenfold  the  gifts  at  Thy   command, 
Finger   of  God's  supreme   right   hand, 
The   Promise  of  the  Father,   who 
Doft   throats   enrich   with   utt'rance   new. 


60  VENI    CREATOR    SPIRITUS. 

TV. 

Accende  lumen   senfibus, 
Infunde  amorem   cordibus, 
Infirma  noftri  corporis, 
Virtute  firmans  perpeti. 

v. 
Hoftem  repellas  longius, 
Pacemque  dones  protinus  : 
Dudtore  fie  te  praevio 
Vitemus  omne  noxium. 

VI. 

Per  te  sciamus  da  Patrem 
Noscamus  atque  Filium, 
Teque   utriusque  Spiritum 
Credamus  omni  tempore. 

VII. 

Deo  Patri  fit  gloria, 
Et  Filio,  qui  a  mortuis 
Surrexit,  ac  Paraclito, 
In  saeculorum  saecula. 

Carolus  Magnus. 


VENI    CREATOR    SPIRITUS.  6l 

IV. 

Kindle  the   senses,  light  impart, 
Infuse  Thy  love  in   every  heart, 
Weaken   our  body's  bent  to  wrong, 
In  lafting  virtue   making  ftrong. 

v. 
Drive   farther  off  the   hellifh   foe, 
And  conftant  peace   henceforth  beflow. 
May  we  —  Thou,   Leader  in  the   way  — 
All  evil  fhun,  nor  go  aftray. 

VI. 

Grant  we  may  know  in   verity 
The  Father  and   the  Son   through   Thee  ; 
And  in  all  time   may  Thee  believe 
Spirit  of  Both,  and  so  receive. 

VII. 

Be  God   the  Father   glorified, 
And   God   the  Son  who   for  us  died 
And   rose,  and   God  the   Paraclete, 
Ages  on  ages  infinite. 

Charlemagne.     (Beginning  of  IX.  Century.) 


62  VEN1    CREATOR    SPIRIT'JS. 

1  The  seven  gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit  (Isaiah  xi.  2,  3)  are: 
1.  Wisdom  (sapientia}  ;  2.  Underftanding  (inte/Ietlus)  ; 
3.  Counsel  (conji/ium)  ;  4.  Fortitude  (fortitudo)  ;  5.  Knowl- 
edge (scientia)  ;  6.  Piety  (pietas)  ;  7.  Fear  of  the  Lord 
(timor).    Whence  the  verse  :  — 

Sap.  intel.  con.  for.  sci.  pi.  ti.  collige  dona. 

8  The  title  here  given  to  the  Holy  Ghoft — Digitus  Dei  — 
borrowed  from  Luke  xi.  20,  and  answering  to  the  Spiritus  Dei 
of  Matthew  xii.  28,  is  adapted,  so  it  is  thought,  to  suggeft 
other  ideas  befides  the  fingle  one  of  power.  As  the  fingers  are 
various  but  have  a  common  origin  in  the  hand,  so  there  are 
diverfities  of  gifts  and  operations,  but  the  same  Spirit.  Not- 
withftanding  divifions,  there  is  a  root  of  unity.  Jerome  finds 
in  it  moreover  a  hint  of  the  homooufian  union  of  the  Spirit 
with  the  Father  and  the  Son.  "  If,  therefore, "  he  argues,  "  the 
Son  is  the  hand  and  arm  of  God,  and  the  Holy  Ghoft  His  fin- 
ger, there  is  one  subftance  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Uhoft."  It  is  ftated  in  Exodus  that  "  the  Lord  delivered  unto 
Moses  two  tables  of  done  written  with  the  finger  of  God  ;  " 
and  Paul  speaks  of  the  Corinthian  converts  as  "  epiftles  of 
Chrift,  written  not  with  ink,  but  the  Spirit  of  the  living  God  ; 
not  in  tables  of  ftone,  but  in  the  rlefhly  tables  of  the  heart,"  — 
thus  furnifhing  another  illuftration  of  scriptural  usage  in  as- 
cribing the  same  function  and  work  to  the  finger  of  God  and 
the  Spirit  of  God. 


ALPHABETIC     JUDGMENT-HYMN. 


his    time. 


(HYMNUS    ALPHABETICUS    DE    DIE   JUDICII.) 

HE  venerable  Bede,  an  Englifh  monk, 
who  lived  in  the  seventh  century,  makes 
mention  of  this  Alphabetical  Hymn,  so 
that  it  muft  have  been  written  before 
The  author  is  unknown.  Daniel  re- 
marks :  "  It  is  interefting  to  compare  this  piece  on 
the  Laft  Judgment  with  that  mod  celebrated  one, 
Dies  ir&,  dies  ilia,  by  which  in  majefty  and  terror, 
not  in  holy  fimplicity  and  truthfulness,  it  is  surpafled." 
Neale,  likewise,  speaking  of  this  Hymn,  says  :  "  It 
manifeftly  contains  the  germ  of  the  Dies  Ira,  to 
which,  however  inferior  in  lyric  fervor  and  effecl:,  it 
scarcely  yields  in  devotion  and  fimple  realization  of 
the  subject." 


HYMNUS    DE    DIE    JUDICII. 


PPAREBIT      repentina      Dies     Magna 
Domini 
Fur  obscura  velut  nocte  improvisos  oo 
cupans, 
B  revis  totus  turn  parebit  prisci  luxus  sseculi, 

Totum  fimul  cum  clarebit  pratteriiTe  saeculum. 
C  langor  tubae  per  quaternas  terrae  plagas  concinens, 

Vivos  una  mortuosque   Chrifto  ciet  obviam. 
D  e  coelefti  Judex  arce,   majeftate  fulgidus 

Claris   angelorum  choris  comitatus  aderit  : 
E  rubescet  orbis  lunae,   sol   et  obscurabitur, 

Stella  cadent  pallescentes,  mundi  tremet  ambitus  ; 
Plamma,  ignis  anteibit  jufti   vultum  Judicis, 

Coelos,  terras  et  profundi   fluctus  ponti   devorans. 
Gr  loriosus   in   sublimi   Rex  sedebit  solio, 

Angelorum  tremebun  la  circumftabant  agmina, 


JUDGMENT-HYMN. 


S  a  thief  in  the  night,  when  none  waketh 
to  ward, 
Shall  be  the  surprise  of  that  Day  of  the 
Lord  ; 

B  rief  {hall   then   seem   all  its  pomp  and   display 
When  the  world  fhall  have  patted  and  its  fafhion 
away. 
C  langor  of  trumpet-call,  everywhere   spread, 

Shall  gather  to  Chriff.  all  the  quick  and  the  dead. 
D  azzling  from   heaven  the   Judge  (hall  descend, — 

Bright  choirs  of  angels   His  coming  attend  : 
E  'en   as  blood  fhall   the  moon  be,  the  sun  it  fhall 
fade, 
Stars   paling  fhall   fall,  and   the   world   be   afraid  ; 
'P  ore  the  face  of  the  Judge,  lo  !   a  fire  fhall  sweep 
Devouring  the  heavens,  the  land  and   the  deep. 
G  lorious  the  King  fhall  be  seated  on   high, 

While  trembling  around   ftand   the  hoits   of  the 
fky. 


66  HYMNUS    DE    DIE    JUDICII. 

H  ujus  omnes  ad   elecl:i   colligentur  dexteram, 

Pravi   pavent  a  finiftris   hoedi   velut  fcetidi : 
I  te,  dicit   Rex  ad  dextros,   regnum   coeli  sumite, 

Pater   vobis  quod   paravit   ante  omne  saeculum, 
C  aritate  qui   fraterna   me  juviftis   pauperem, 

Caritatis  nunc   mercedem   reportate  divites. 
L  aeti  dicent :  quando,  Chrifte,  pauperem  te  vidimus, 

Te,  Rex   magne,   vel  egentem    miserati  juvimus  : 
Magnus   ill  is  dicet  Judex:    cum  juviftis   pauperes, 

Panem,     domum,     veftem      dantes,     me     juviftis 
humiles. 
N  ec  tardabit    et   finiftris  loqui  juftus  Arbiter : 

In   Gehennae  maledicti   flammas  hinc  discedite  ; 
O  bsecrantem   me  audire   despexiftis   mendicum, 

Nudo   veftem  non   dediftis,  neglexiftis  languidum. 
P  eccatores  dicent :  Chrifte?  quando  te  vel  pauperem, 

Te,    Rex      magne,    vel    infirmum    contemnentes 
sprevimus. 
Q  uibus  contra  Judex  altus  :    mendicanti   quamdiu 

Opem  ferre  despexiftis,  me  spreviftis  improbi. 


JUDGMENT-HYMN.  67 

H  is  elecl:  on  the  right  fhall  be  gathered,  the  while 

On  His  left  fhall  be  placed  the  wicked  and  vile  ; 

u  I  nherit    the    kingdom  "  —  fhall    the  King  say  to 

those  —  [was  ; 

"  The  Father  prepared   for    you   ere  the  world 

u  K  indly,  Me   poor,  ye  did   succor   in  love, 

"  Love's  guerdon    receive    now,  ye  rich,    from 
above." 
"  L  ord,"  they  fhall  say,  "  when  did  we  e'er  see 

ct  Thee    poor,    and     in    want    gave     succor    to 
Thee?" 
"Me"  —  fhall  He  say  —  "  ye  did  succor,  9t  was  I 
"  When  ye  cared  for  the  poor,  fhared  the  timely 
supply." 
N  ext,  over  the  left,  in  loud  thunders  fhall  burn1 : 
"  To  the  flames  of  Gehenna  depart  ye  accurft  : 
"  O  n  Me  needy  ye  looked  and  turned  a  deaf  ear, 
"  When    naked    Me    clothed    not,    when    Tick 
came  not  near." 
"Pray   tell  us,  Great  King,  when,  poor  or  forlorn, 
"  Did  we  ever  contemn    Thee    or    treat    Thee 
with  scorn  ?  " 
Q,  ueftioned,  the  Judge  fhall  then  answer  :  "Know  ye 
"  What  time  ye  <-he  needy  despised  ye  did  Me." 


68  HYMNUS    DE    DIE    JUDICII. 

Retro  ruent  turn  injufti  ignes  in  perpetuos, 

Vermis  quorum  non  morietur,  flamma  nee   reftin- 
guitur, 
S  atan  atro  cum   miniftris  quo  tenetur  carcere, 

Fletus  ubi  mugitusque,  ftrident  omnes  dentibus. 
T  unc   fideles  ad  cceleftem    suftollentur  patriam, 

Choros   inter  angelorum   regni   petent  gaudia, 
U  rbis   summae    Hirusalem  introibunt  gloriam 

Vera  lucis  atque   pads   in  qua  fulget  vifio. 
X  PA4  regem  jam   paterna  claritate  splendidum 

Ubi  celsa  beatorum  contemplantur  agmina  — 
Y  dri   fraudes  ergo  cave,  infirmantes  subleva, 

Aurum   temne,  fuge  luxus   fi   vis  aftra   petere, 
Z  ona  clara  cafHtatis  lumbos  nunc  praecingere, 

In  occursum  Magni  Regis  fer  ardentes  lampades. 


JUDGMENT-HYMN.  69 

R  ufh  fhall  the  wicked  then,  plunged   in  the   fire 
Where    the   worm  fhall    not    die  nor  the   flame 
fhall  expire. 
S  atan  in  chains  fhall  there  hold  them  beneath, 
Where  are  weeping  and  wailing  and  gnafhing  of 
teeth. 
T  hen  the  faithful,   upborne  to  the  heavenly  land, 
Shall  partake  of  the  joys  at  Jehovah's  right  hand  ; 
U  fhered  fhall  be  in  that  Salem  above 

Where  fhines  the  true  vifion  of  light,  peace,  and 
love  ; 
'Xalted  as  King,  in  divinity  dreft, 

There  Chrift  fhall  be  viewed  by  the  hofts  of  the 
bleft. 
You  the  Serpent's  wiles  fhun,  you  the  weak  ones 
suftain, 
Scorn  gold,  flee  excess,  would  you  the  flars  gain. 
Z  one  of  chaftity  bright  be  your  girdle,  forth  bring 
Your  lamps  trimmed  and   burning  to   meet    the 
Great  King. 

Unknown  Author. 
(VII.  Century,  or  earlier.) 


ON    CONTEMPT    OF   THE   WORLD. 


(CARMEN  JACOPONI  DE  CONTEMPTU  MUNDI.) 


HIS    Hymn    was    fir  ft    printed    in    Paris, 
Sjjd    1496.      It   has   been    ascribed  to   various 


^-W>^c{  Persons5  among  the  reft  to  St.  Bernard  ; 
^""^  also  to  Walter  Mapes,  Archdeacon  of 
Oxford,  England,  who  lived  in  the  twelfth  or  thir- 
teenth century.  But  Wadding,  in  his  "  Annals  of 
the  Minorites,"  points  to  Jacopone  as  the  true  au- 
thor of  this  as  well  as  of  the  Stabat  Mater;  and 
this  now  would  seem  to  be  the  received  opinion. 
Du  Meril  collates  the  third  and  fourth  verses  with 
the  following  lines  taken  from  another  part  of  the 
same  poem  as  "  The  Better  Country,"  —  Bernard's 
u  De  Contemptu  Mundi."  The  reader  will  readily 
recognize  the  rhyming  hexameter  with  which  he  was 
made  familiar  in  the  former  extract : 


ON    CONTEMPT    OF    THE    WORLD.  71 

**  Eft  ubi  gloria  nunc,  Babylonia  ?  sunt  ubi  durus 
Nabuchodonozor  et  Darii  vigor,  illeque  Cyrus  ? 
Nunc  ubi  curia  pompaque  Iulia  ?     Caesar  obifti  ; 
Te  truculentior,  orbe  potentior  ipse  fuifti. 
Nunc  ubi  Marius  atque  Fabricius  inscius  auri  ? 
Mors  ubi  nobilis  et  memorabilis  aclio  Fori  ? 
Diva  philippica,  vox  ubi  ccelica  nunc  Ciceronis  ? 
Pax  ubi  civibus  atque  rebellibus  ira  Catonis  ? 
Nunc  ubi  Regulus,  aut  ubi  Romulus,  aut  ubi  Remus? 
Stat  rosa  priftina  nomine,  nomina  nuda  tenemus." 

Here  is  more  in  the  same  vein,  occurring  in  a 
hymn  "  On  Death,"  of  an  uncertain  date  and  by  an 
unknown  author : 

"  Ubi  Plato,  ubi  Porphyrius  ; 
Ubi  Tullius  aut  Virgilius  ; 
Ubi  Thales,  ubi  Empedocles, 
Aut  egregius  Ariftoteles  ; 
Alexander  ubi  rex  maximus  ; 
Ubi  Heftor  Troiae  fortiffimus; 
Ubi  David  rex  docYiifimus, 
Ubi  Salomon  prudentiflimus  ; 
Ubi  Helena  Parisque  roseus  ; 
Ceciderunt  in  profundum  ut  lapides  : 
Quis  scit,  an  detur  eis  requies." 


DE    CONTEMPTU    MUNDI. 


I. 


UR  mundus  militat  sub  vana  gloria, 
Cujus  prosperitas  eft  tranfitoria? 
Tarn   cito  labitur  ejus   potentia, 
Quam  vasa  figuli,  quae  sunt  fragilia. 


II. 


Plus  crede  Uteris  scriptis  in  glacie, 
Quam  mundi  fragilis   vanae  fallaciae  ! 
Fallax  in  praemiis  virtutis  specie, 
Quae  nunquam   habuit  tempus   fiduciae. 


ill. 


Die,  ubi  Salomon,  olim  tarn  nobilis, 
Vel  ubi  Sampson  eft,  dux  invincibilis  ? 


ON    CONTEMPT    OF   THE   WORLD. 


I. 

HY   toileth   the  world   in   the  service   of 

gloI7> 
Whose  triumphs  are  brief,  though   the 

proudeft   in   ftory  ? 
Its  power  is,  though  high  as  the  heart  ever  flattered, 
Like  the  vase  of  the  potter,  that  quickly  is  fhattered. 


ii. 


Truft  a  pledge  writ  in  ice  when  winter  is  leaving  — 
Than    the    world's     fair    falsehoods    less    vain    and 


leceiving 


Moft  false  in   its   promise  of  virtue's  rewarding, 
The  time  of  redemption   it  never  regarding. 


III. 


O  say,  where   is  Solomon,  aforetime  so  glorious? 
Or  where  now  is  Sampson,  a  leader  victorious  ? 

IO 


74  DE    CONTEMPTU    MUNDI. 

Vel   pulcher   Absalom,  vultu   mirabilis, 
Vel  dulcis  Jonathas,   multum   amabilis  ? 


IV. 

Quo  Caesar  abiit,  celsus   imperio  ? 

Vel   Xerxes  splendidus,   totus   in   prandio  ? 

Die   ubi  Tullius,  clarus  eloquio  ? 

Vel    Ariftoteles,   summus   ingenio  ? 

v. 

Tot  clari   proceres,  tot  rerum   spatia, 
Tot  ora  praesulum,  tot  regna   fortia, 
Tot   mundi   principes,  tanta  potentia, 
In  i£tu  oculi   clauduntur  omnia. 

vi. 
Quam   breve   feftum   eft   haec  mundi  gloria  f 
Ut  umbra  hominis,   fie   ejus  gaudia, 
Quae  semper  subtrahunt  aeterna  praemia, 
Et  ducunt   hominem   ad   dura  devia. 


ON    CONTEMPT    OF    THE    WORLD.  75 

Or  beautiful   Absalom,  of  wondrous  appearing  ? 
Or  Jonathan   sweet,  exceeding  endearing  ? 


IV. 

Where  's  Caesar  gone  now,  in  command   high  and 

able  ? 
Or  Xerxes  the  splendid,  complete  in   his  table  ? 
Or  Tully,  with  powers  of  eloquence  ample  ? 
Or  Aristotle,  of  genius  the  highefr.  example  ? 

v. 
So  many  great  nobles,  things,  adminiflrations, 
So  many  high  chieftains,  so  many  brave  nations, 
So  many  proud  princes,  and  power  so  splendid, 
In  a   moment,  a  twinkling,  all  utterly  ended. 

VI. 

Earth's   glory   how   vain,   a  brief  banquet  its    meas- 
ure ! 
As  is  a  man's  fhadow  even  so  is  its  pleasure, 
Which  forever  of  endless  rewards   makes  deduction, 
And  leads  in  the  hard  devious  paths  of  deftru&ion. 


76 


DE    CONTEMPTU    MUNDI. 


VII. 


O  esca  vermium,  O   mafia  pulveris, 
O  ros,  O  vanitas,    cur    fie  extolleris  ? 
Ignoras   penitus,   utrum  eras  vixeris  ; 
Benefac  omnibus,  quamdiu  poteris  ! 


VIII. 


Haec  mundi  gloria,  quae  magni  penditur, 
Sacris  in  literis  flos  foeni  dicitur ; 
O  leve  folium,  quod  vento  rapitur  ! 
Sic  vita  hominis  hac  via  tollitur. 


IX. 

Nil  tuum  dixeris,  quod  potes  perdere  ! 
Quod  mundus  tribuit,  intendit  rapere. 
Superna  cogita  '   cor  fit  in  aethere  ! 
Felix,  qui   potuit  mundum  contemnere  ! 

Jacobus  de  Benedictisl 


ON    CONTEMPT    OF    THE    WORLD.  77 

VII. 

O  food  for  the  worms,  O  mass  of  duft  drifted, 
O  dew,  O  vanity,  why  so  uplifted  ? 
Thou   know'ft   not  at   all,  if   thou  'It    live   till    to- 
morrow ; 
Do  good  while  thou  canft  to  the  children  of  sorrow! 

VIII. 

This  glory  of  earth,  which  is  much  eftimated, 
As  the  flower  of  grass  is  in  Holy  Writ  rated  : 
O  leaf   light    and   frail,  by  the   wind   snatched  and 

harried  ! 
Ev'n  so  human  life  is  away  from  earth  carried. 

IX. 

Call  nought  then  thine  own  which  is  loft  ere  one 

knoweth  ! 
Earth  meaneth  to  take  the  good  it  beftoweth  : 
On  supernal  joys  think  !   let  thy  heart  be  in  heaven  ! 
Contemn  thou  the  world,  and  beware  of  its  leaven ! 

Jacopone.     (XIII.  Century.) 


ATIN  HYMNS  WITH  ORIGINAL  TRANS- 
LATIONS.     By    Abraham    Coles,    M.  D. 
D.  Appleton  and  Company,  New  York,  namely  :  — 
Dies  Ir^e.     In  Thirteen  Original  Translations.     Fifth 
Edition. 

Stabat    Mater  (Dolorosa).     The    Sorrows  of  Mary. 
Second  Edition. 

Stabat    Mater  (Speciosa).     The  Joys  of  Mary. 

Old   Gems    in    New   Settings.      Being    Additional 
Selections  from  Mediaeval  Hymnology. 

The  Four  Parts  bound  together,  forming  one  ele- 
gantly printed  volume,  with  Biographical  and  Critical 
Prefaces,  very  choice  Photographs,  Music,  &c.  Crown 
8vo.  Also,  the  Dies  Ir^  alone  ;  and  the  others  sep- 
arately or  together.  Also,  the  same  work  without  the 
photographs. 

Also  by  the  same  author 
THE  MICROCOSM.     A  Poem.     "  Know  Thyself." 
With  Photographic  Illustrations.   Crown  8vo.  pp.  99. 


NOTICES    OF    THE    PRESS. 

"  We  commend  the  volume  (Difs  Ir.£,  In  Thirteen  Original 
Versions)  as  one  of  great  interest,  and  an  admirable  tribute  from 
American  scholarship  and  poetic  taste  to  the  supreme  nobility  of 
the  original  poem.  Dr.  Coles  has  shown  a  fine  appreciation  of 
the  spirit  and  rhythmic  movement  of  the  Hymn,  as  well  as  unusual 
command  of  language  and  rhyme  ;  and  we  much  doubt  whether 
any  translation  of  the  Dies  Ira,  better  than  the  first  of  the  thir- 
teen, will  ever  be  produced  in  English,  except  perhaps  by  himself. 
...  As  to  the  translation  of  the  Hymn,  it  is  perhaps  the  most 
difficult  task  that  could  be  undertaken.  To  render  Faust  or  the 
Songs  of  Egmont  into  fitting  English  numbers,  would  be  easy  in 
comparison."  —  Richard  Grant  White  {The  Albion). 

"  The  book  is  a  gem  both  typographically  and  intrinsically  ; 
beautifully  printed  at  the  '  Riverside  Press,'  in  the  loveliest  antique 
type,  on  tinted  paper,  with  liberal  margins  embellished  with  ex- 
quisite photographs  of  the  great  masterpieces  of  Christian  Art, 
and  withal  elegantly  and  solidly  bound  in  Matthew's  best  style,  a 
gentleman-like  book,  suggestive  of  Christmas  and  the  centre- 
table  ;    and  its  contents  worthy  of  their  dainty  envelope,  amply 

entitling  it  as  well  to  a  place  on  the  shelves  of  the  scholar 

The  first  two  of  the  Thirteen  Versions  of  the  Dies  7m  appeared 
in  the  'Newark  Daily  Advertiser'  as  long  ago  as  1847.  They 
were  extensively  copied  by  the  press,  and  warmly  commended  — 
particularly  by  the  Rev.  Drs.  James  W.  Alexander  and  W.  R. 
Williams,  scholars  whose  critical  acumen  and  literary  ability  are 
universally  recognized  —  as  being  the  best  of  the  English  versions 
in  double  rhyme  :  and  examples  of  singular  success  in  a  difficult 
undertaking,  in  which  many,  and  of  eminent  name,  had  been  com- 
petitors. The  eleven  other  versions  are  worthy  companions  of 
those  which  have  received  such  eminent  endorsement.  Indeed, 
we  are  not  sure  but  that  the  last,  which  is  in  the  same  measure  as 
Crashaw's,  but  in  our  judgment  far  superior,  will  please  the  gen- 
eral taste  most  of  all."  —  Rev.  S.  I.  Prime,  D.  D.  [New  York  Ob- 
server). 

"  There  are  few  versions  of  the  Hymn  which  will  bear  to  be 
compared  with  these  ;  we  are  surprised  that  thev  are  all  so  well 
done."*—  William  C.  Bryant  (N.  V.  Evening  Post). 

"  Dr.  Coles  has  made,  we  think,  the  most  successful  attempt  at 
an  English  translation  of  the  hvmn  that  we  have  ever  seen.  .  .  . 


He  has  done  so  well  that  we  hope  he  will  try  his  hand  on  some 
of  the  other  Latin  Hymns.  By  rendering  them  in  their  own 
metres,  and  with  so  large  a  transfusion  of  their  spirit  as  charac- 
terizes his  present  attempt,  he  will  be  doing  a  real  service  to  the 
lovers  of  that  kind  of  religious  poetry  in  which  neither  the  relig- 
ion nor  the  poetry  is  left  out.  He  has  shown  that  he  knows  the 
worth  of  faithfulness."  —  James  Russell  Loivell  {Atlantic  Monthly). 

"  Of  Dr.  Coles'  remarkable  success  as  respects  these  particu- 
lars (namely,  faithfulness  and  variety),  no  one  competent  to  judge 
can  doubt.  .  .  .  P'or  all  that  enters  into  a  good  translation,  fidelity 
to  the  sense  of  the  original,  uniform  conformity  to  its  tenses,  pres- 
ervation of  its  metrical  form  without  awkwardly  inverting,  inele- 
gantly abbreviating,  or  violently  straining  the  sense  of  the  words, 
and  the  reproduction  of  its  vital  spirit  —  for  all  these  qualities  Dr. 
Coles'  first  translation  stands,  we  believe,  not  only  unsurpassed, 
but  unequaled  in  the  English  language." — Christian  {Quarterly) 
Review. 

"  United  with  a  rare  command  of  language  and  facility  of  versi- 
fication, this  is  the  secret  of  the  eminent  success  with  which  the 
Translator  has  reproduced  the  solemn  litany  of  the  Middle  Ages 
in  such  a  variety  of  forms.  If  not  all  of  equal  excellence,  it  is 
hard  to  decide  as  to  their  respective  merits,  so  admirably  do  they 
embody  the  tone  and  sentiment  of  the  original  in  vigorous  and 
impressive  verse.  The  essays  which  precede  and  follow  the 
Hymn,  exhibit  the  learning  and  the  taste  of  the  translator  in  a 
most  favorable  light,  and  show  that  an  antiquary  and  a  poet  have 
not  been  lost  in  the  study  of  science  and  the  practice  of  a  labori- 
ous profession.  In  addition  to  the  thirteen  versions  of  Dies  Irce, 
the  volume  contains  translations  of  the  Stabat  Mater,  Urbs  Ccelestis 
Syon,  Veni  Creator  Spiritns,  and  other  choice  mediaeval  hymns 
which  have  been  executed  with  equal  unction  and  felicity. 

"  We  have  also  a  poem  by  the  same  author,  entitled  The  Micro- 
cosm, read  before  the  Medical  Society  of  New  Jersey  at  its  Cen- 
tenary anniversary.  It  is  an  ingenious  attempt  to  present  the 
principles  of  the  animal  economy  in  a  philosophical  poem,  some- 
what after  the  manner  of  Lucretius,  and  combining  scientific  anal- 
ysis with  religious  sentiment.  In  ordinary  hands,  we  should  not 
regard  this  as  a  happy,  nor  a  safe,  experiment,  but  the  dexterity 
with  which  it  has  been  managed  by  Dr.  Coles,  illustrates  his  ver- 
satile talent  as  well  as  the  originality  of  his  conceptions." — George 
Ripley  {Arew  York  Tribune). 

'•'Dr.  A.  Coles  has  long  been  known  to  the  literary  world  as 


specially  successful  in  the  translation  of  Latin  Hymns.  His  ren 
derings  of  the  Dies  Jrce  are  familiar  to  many  readers.  He  has  now 
also  prepared  a  book,  entitled  Old  Gems  in  New  Settings,  an  ex- 
quisite volume,  in  which  we  find  the  De  Contemptu  Mundi,  the 
Veni  Sancte  Spiritus,  and  other  fine  old  favorites  skillfully  and 
gracefully  translated.  The  grand  hymn  or  poem  of  Bernard  dc 
Clugny,  of  which  the  extracts  in  this  book  are  styled  the  Urb* 
Ccelestis  Syon,  is  rendered  in  a  style  very  nearly  resembling  the 
original,  and  gives  the  reader,  who  does  not  understand  Latin,  an 
excellent  idea  of  the  peculiar  characteristics  of  the  hymn  of  Ber- 
nard. Besides  these  we  have  the  Stabat  Mater,  with  a  complete 
history  of  the  noble  hymn,  and  a  very  fine  translation.  The  lovers 
of  old  hymns  owe  a  special  debt  of  gratitude  to  Dr.  Coles  for  the 
good  taste  and  the  thorough  appreciation  and  ability  which  he 
brings  to  the  work  of  placing  these  glorious  old  songs  within 
reach  of  the  modern  world.  We  could  wish  them  to  become 
favorites  in  every  family,  and  they  will  so  become  in  spite  of  their 
Latin  origin."  —  William  C.  Prime  {Journal  of  Commerce). 

"  Dr.  Coles  has  been  too  long  away  from  a  public  which  has 
already  shown  itself  kindly  to  him,  and  we  thank  him,  especially, 
for  this  book  of  his  own  {The  Microcosm).  .  .  .  Why  should  not 
the  wonderful  make  of  man  —  the  might  and  cunning  skill  that 
are  moulded  in  him  —  furnish  a  very  choice  theme  for  poetry  ? 
Dr.  Coles,  accustomed,  by  his  profession,  to  search  among  and 
study  out  these  marvels,  knowing  how  they  are  grouped  together, 
what  work  they  do,  and  how  they  are  fitted  for  it,  believes  that 
here  is  one  of  the  very  noblest  themes  for  such  use,  hitherto 
strangely  left  alone.  This  therefore  is  the  occasion  of  his  writing 
The  Microcosm.  .  .  .  The  Eustachian  Tube,  and  Cerebellum,  and 
(Esophagus,  made  into  poetry,  must  have  astonished  the  well- 
informed  Medical  Faculty  of  New  Jersey,  much  as  a  farmer's 
smoke-house  and  pigsty  and  shed  would  astonish  him,  if  made 
into  a  picture.     And  Dr.  Coles  has  really  made  them  into  poetry. 

.  .  Tissue  and  organ  and  channel  and  duct  are  very  skillfully 
and  beautifully  described  and  made  to  witness  to  God's  goodness  : 
the  skin,  the  nerves,  the  flesh,  the  heart,  the  eye,  the  tongue,  the 
ear,  the  seeing,  hearing,  speech,  light,  tears,  sleep,  music,  the  blind, 
the  dumb,  the  living  mind.  Whatever  in  man  is  good,  and  strong, 
and  fine,  and  beautiful  finds  place  in  Dr.  Coles'  Poem,  and  is  so 
set  forth  that  the  man  of  science  and  the  man  who  can  read  and 
feel  the  force  of  good  thoughts  and  tuneful  words,  and  know? 
nothing  of  anatomy  and  physiology,  beside  the  cheapest  axioms  of 


food  and  sleep,  may  alike  enjoy  the  reading.  Whoever  has  only 
grovelling  notions  of  man's  nature,  and  knows  the  body  only  as 
an  instrument  of  low  pleasure  and  a  vehicle  of  pain  and  punish- 
ment, would  here  learn  something  better  of  himself  and  worthier 
of  the  answer  which  he,  like  holier  men,  must  make,  at  last.  Not 
that  all  is  preaching.  The  book  is,  indeed,  written  by  a  Christian 
man,  to  whom  his  faith  in  his  Redeemer  and  relationship  to  God 
are  dearer  than  all  other  things  ;  but  the  blush  of  maiden-love 
and  the  conscious  glance  of  the  eye  ;  the  deep  mother's  love  for 
the  infant  nestling  in  the  bosom  and  nursing  at  the  breast ;  the 
hallowed  happiness  of  two  made  one,  in  Christ  ;  all  these  glow  in 
his  pages,  with  an  attractive  beauty  beyond  the  common.  All  that 
imaginative  and  eloquent  account  of  the  brain  and  its  great  faculty, 
we  would  take,  whole,  if  we  could.  .  .  .  If  high  thoughts,  in  glow- 
ing words,  be  noble,  is  not  this  which  we  have  just  read  ?  .  .  .  One 
meets,  continually,  in  this  poem,  such  passages  as  the  following  ; 
and  one  such,  even,  would  show  the  fine  skill  and  glowing  power 
of  the  writer.  .  .  . 

"  The  second  book  whose  title  stands  at  the  head  of  this  arti- 
cle—  the  Stabat  Mater — is  a  translation  with  very  interesting 
comments.  .  .  .  Like  most  poets,  the  author  of  The  Microcosm 
writes  prose  beautifully,  and  the  reader  will  never  find,  in  the 
prose  of  these  volumes,  any  thing  but  what  is  interesting.  In  the 
poem  and  remarks  which  accompany  the  Stabat  Mater  is  the 
utmost  justness  of  criticism,  fullness  of  information,  and  graceful- 
ness of  expression.  If  as  much  can  be  learned,  elsewhere,  of  the 
origin  and  character  and  history  of  that  hymn,  we  may  safely  say 
that  it  can  nowhere  be  learned  so  pleasantly.  These  parts  of  the 
book,  like  the  corresponding  parts  of  the  book  on  the  Dies  Ira, 
we  hold  to  be  especially  valuable."  — Rev.  Robert  Lowell,  D.  D. 
{The  Church  Monthly). 

"  Dr.  Coles  has  supplied  a  want  and  done  a  graceful  work  in 
The  Microcosm.  What  the  flower  or  babbling  stream  is  to 
Wordsworth,  that  is  the  stranger,  more  complex,  and  more  beau- 
tiful human  frame  to  our  author.  In  its  organs,  its  powers,  its 
aspirations,  and  its  passions,  he  finds  ample  theme  for  song.  .  .  . 
Everywhere  the  rhythm  is  flowing  and  easy,  and  no  scholarly 
man  can  peruse  the  work  without  a  glance  of  wonder  at  the  varied 
erudition,  classical,  poetical,  and  learned,  that  crowds  its  pages, 
and  overflows  in  foot-notes.  And  through  the  whole  is  a  devout 
religious  tone  and  a  purity  of  purpose  worthy  of  all  praise."  — 
Newark  Daily  Advertiser. 


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